SCI Semiconductor raises £5m led by PXN Ventures and Mercia Ventures
This article covers SCI Semiconductor, a cybersecurity startup, which has raised £5m in a growth funding round led by PXN Ventures and Mercia Ventures to accelerate production of its memory-safe ICENI chips. The funding will scale production of CHERI-based ICENI chips designed to reduce memory-safety vulnerabilities for customers in critical infrastructure, defence and medical sectors and help meet tightening regulatory security requirements.
SCI Semiconductor, a cybersecurity startup, has raised £5m in a growth funding round led by PXN Ventures and Mercia Ventures to accelerate production of its memory-safe ICENI chips — a response to rising cyber threats and new regulatory pressure on software and hardware security.
Why it matters
Memory-safety flaws are increasingly central to high-impact cyber incidents, and vendors and regulators are pushing beyond patching as a long-term defence. SCI says memory safety is a factor in around 70% of cyber attacks and argues that embedding protections in hardware can reduce the class of vulnerabilities that allow attackers to take control or crash systems. That argument has traction with government bodies and customers in critical infrastructure, defence and medical sectors, which face growing exposure as AI tools reveal software defects more quickly.
Inside the product
SCI’s ICENI chips implement CHERI, a government-backed framework for memory-safe architecture. The company says its approach divides memory into trusted compartments and tightly controls access, rather than relying solely on software-based mitigations. SCI’s ICENI range are the first chips based on CHERI technology and the company has been appointed a core supplier in the UK government’s Accelerated CHERI Adoption Programme.
First devices have been fabricated, with orders worth over £2m already secured. SCI also reports government contracts totalling £7.7m and partnerships with Google Research and Microsoft. Design and packaging are carried out in the United Kingdom, while wafer fabrication takes place in Germany.
Who are the investors?
The £5m round was led by PXN Ventures and Mercia Ventures, with participation from Osney Capital, Black Opal Ventures and private investors. The announcement follows an oversubscribed earlier round a year ago that raised £2.5m, led by NPIF II and Mercia Ventures.
Several investor quotes accompanied the deal:
In the announcement, Will Schaffer, Investment Director at Mercia Ventures, said:
SCI Semiconductor brings together some of the leading minds in the industry. They have developed an elegant solution to a trillion-dollar problem, one that has so far eluded other players, and the business has quickly gained traction. We are pleased to continue supporting them and look forward to seeing them go from strength to strength.
In the announcement, Elizabeth Young, Investment Manager at PXN Ventures, said:
We're proud to be backing the SCI Semiconductor team, who are doing incredibly important work addressing rising threats to critical infrastructure and other key sectors with hardware-level cybersecurity, particularly as these threats become more sophisticated.
In the announcement, Paul Wilkes, Partner at Osney Capital, said:
SCI Semiconductor is the exactly the type of UK company Osney Capital seeks to support: world-leading technologists tackling global cyber security problems with commercial energy, focussed on execution. Memory safety is a genuinely massive opportunity and we are delighted to be working with Haydn and the broader team.
If you're researching potential backers in this space:
- Explore our list of cyber security venture capital firms in the UK
- Browse our directory of cyber security angel investors in the UK
Founder perspective
In the announcement, Haydn Povey, Co-founder & CEO at SCI Semiconductor, said:
The problem of memory safety is finally being taken seriously. As AI is identifying hundreds of critical vulnerabilities, it is clear that huge swathes of technology are open to attack. Additionally with so much code generated by AI, the question is how much of it is fit for purpose and what risk that could pose to systems. Memory safe technology helps overcome these challenges. Since unveiling our ICENI chip earlier this year, demand has been overwhelming. The funding will enable us to step up production and develop a new generation of chips here in the UK.
SCI was founded in 2022 by Povey alongside Krishna Anne, a Silicon Valley executive, and Dr David Chisnall from Microsoft Research, with involvement from academics at the Universities of Cambridge and Manchester. The company employs 35 staff across Sheffield and Cambridge and plans to add about 15 roles in the next year.
The bigger picture
The deal sits at the intersection of several trends: hardware-based cybersecurity, government support for secure architectures such as CHERI, and regulatory tightening across Europe. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has signalled that software patching alone may be insufficient, while the European Cyber Resilience Act, which comes into force in September, will increase reporting and resilience obligations for device makers and assemblers. SCI’s chips are pitched as a way to both reduce vulnerability exposure and help customers meet parts of those new requirements.
More broadly, the round reflects growing interest from cybersecurity investors in solutions that move security earlier in the stack and out of the sole reliance on software updates. For UK technology policy and industrial strategy, investments that combine domestic design and international fabrication — plus government procurement — are likely to receive continued attention as authorities seek resilient supply chains and stronger cyber defences across Europe.
They've invested in SCI Semiconductor
Get to know these cyber security investors
| Investors | Investment Focus | Startup Investments | Round Size | Connect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 PXN Ventures( ) PXN Ventures is a UK-based venture capital firm focused on backing high-growth c... Manchester  | ||||
 Mercia( ) Mercia is a venture capital firm focused on fuelling UK business ambitions throu... Manchester | ||||
 Osney Capital( ) Osney Capital is a venture capital firm specialising in the early-stage Cyber se... London | ||||
 Black Opal Ventures( ) NYC, US  | HealthtechCyber Security | |||
 Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II( ) The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF) focuses on providing finance to s... Sheffield | ||||
| All investors | All investor sectors | All funded startups | All funding rounds |
Click here for a full list of 7,589+ startup investors in the UK