The First Official Investment in Blockchain by Salesforce Ventures

Landmark investment in UK start-up Gospel Technology marks VC’s first investment in enterprise blockchain

Platform for Enterprise Data Collaboration Represents One of the first Practical Applications of Blockchain

London, England – 24 September 2018 – Gospel Technology, a provider of enterprise software that enables businesses to access information and collaborate more securely has announced its Series A investment of £5 million from IA Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. The Series A investment follows previous seed and angel funding from LocalGlobe in February 2018.

Gospel is an enterprise data security platform that creates a fabric of trust for secure data collaboration – both between employees within the enterprise (intra-enterprise) and between enterprises in supply chains and partnerships (inter-enterprise). This addresses one of the thorniest challenges in the digital economy – how to securely enable the usage and exchange of data without impacting business performance.

For many businesses, this problem has only been addressed by methods that negatively impact on a business’ agility and collaboration (such as restricting access). However, Gospel takes an entirely different approach to the problem – creating an all-in-one solution that utilises a private ledger to create a perimeterless security infrastructure. This allows organisations to retain control of their data once it is shared externally or internally, providing access to individuals based on their credentials.

This investment in Gospel’s solution, one that analyst firm IDC says is the “first practical enterprise application of blockchain”, marks one of the first investments by IA Ventures and Salesforce Ventures in blockchain.

“Salesforce Ventures looks to invest in the most innovative enterprise companies globally,” said Alex Kayyal, Partner at Salesforce Ventures. “We are excited to support Gospel’s vision of advancing enterprise data sharing through blockchain, and we look forward to having them work more closely with our customers.”

Gospel Technology will use the investment to expand its sales, marketing and partner programs, as well as continue the development of its data collaboration platform and integration across existing and new applications and infrastructure.

Teresa Cottam Chief Analyst at Omnisperience commented: “Google changed the way we interact with the internet. Apple changed the way we use our phones. Facebook changed the way we manage our social relationships. What’s getting people excited about Gospel is that it has the potential to change enterprises’ relationship with their data. It does this by bringing to market a breakthrough idea that fixes one of the biggest dilemmas of the Digital Economy: how to enable collaborative and flexible working without compromising on trust and security. In fact, one of the most surprising things about Gospel is why hasn’t somebody done this before?”

“We are really excited to add Gospel Technology to our trailblazing community of talent and technology,” said Roger Ehrenberg IA Ventures. “We believe that blockchain can radically transform the way that organisations will collaborate and share data, resulting in improved productivity and innovation. We are looking forward to seeing how the Gospel value proposition matures and how the company acts on its vision for businesses across the world.”

Gospel is working with some of the UK’s biggest companies, delivering value through business processes in multiple and interconnected industries. Its technology is transformational but ‘non-disruptive’, in that it successfully supports the way a Digital Enterprise manages and uses their data without interrupting or negatively impacting their business.

Gospel Technology was founded by CEO Ian Smith, the entrepreneur behind data analysis and migration company, Butterfly Software, which was successfully acquired by IBM in 2012. Commenting on this investment, Smith said: “Having IA Ventures and Salesforce Ventures join us at this point in our journey is an honour and extremely exciting. IA Ventures are renowned for investing in positively disruptive start-ups and Salesforce is a true innovator and leader, bringing SaaS technology into the enterprise landscape. That mindset and ability to execute aligns with our strategy and ambitions, and we look forward to working together to grow our product and blockchain’s impact in the enterprise.