£5m venture debt fuels Solidatus expansion in AI-enabled data lineage
This article covers Solidatus, a London-based data lineage software company, taking a £5m venture debt facility from Salica Investments' Growth Debt Fund to accelerate R&D on AI-enabled data lineage. The funding is intended to support development of AI and NLP features to automate data lineage and help regulated industries such as banks, energy firms and pharma improve data governance and compliance.
Solidatus, a London-based provider of data lineage software, has taken a £5m venture debt facility from Salica Investments’ Growth Debt Fund to accelerate R&D on AI-enabled data lineage. The deal underlines growing demand from regulated industries — banks, energy firms and pharma — for tools that map, trace and govern complex data flows as compliance and AI use expand.
Why it matters
The £5m loan is intended to speed work on embedding natural language processing and other AI techniques into Solidatus’ platform, with the aim of reducing the manual effort needed to create and verify data lineage. Accurate lineage is increasingly important as firms deploy AI and face new regulatory requirements such as the EU AI Act and longstanding rules like BCBS 239 in financial services.
How Solidatus will use the cash
Solidatus says the funding will support research and development focused on automating data lineage while keeping a human-in-the-loop verification step. The company argues that automating lineage and connecting disparate systems can cut the time required for governance tasks and help organisations build greater trust in their data.
Product and recognition
The business has recently joined the Microsoft Security Store Partner Ecosystem, listed its product on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, and was included in Gartner’s inaugural “Data and Analytics Governance Platforms” Magic Quadrant — milestones that position it closer to enterprise customers and integrators.
Who’s behind the deal
Salica Investments, a UK-based investment firm that backs high-growth companies across the UK and Europe, provided the loan from its Growth Debt Fund. Solidatus’ financing history now totals £25m following a Series A in 2021 led by AlbionVC with participation from HSBC and Citibank.
In the announcement, Usman Ali, Partner at Salica Investments, said:
Solidatus exemplifies the kind of business we look to back, combining exceptional leadership, a roster of Tier 1 customers, and world-class expertise in data lineage, which is increasingly critical for enterprise data governance and regulatory compliance. We’re delighted to support Solidatus in their growth journey, with this funding helping to accelerate product development and scale their operations.
Founder perspective
Solidatus’ executive leadership framed the funding as timely for scaling platform capabilities to meet rising demand for lineage and governance.
In the announcement, Alun Baker, Executive Chairman, said:
This investment from Salica Investments comes at a pivotal time for Solidatus as we scale to meet the growing demands of data lineage. Our focus on advancing the platform’s AI capabilities will further enhance our customers’ ability to manage complexity, ensure compliance, and unlock the value of trusted data at scale. Without lineage, even the most advanced models risk instability and regulatory cracks will start to show, with major consequences to businesses across all sectors.
The bigger picture
The global data governance market is forecast to approach $20bn by 2032, driven by expanding data volumes, regulatory pressure and the need for better data quality and security. Vendors that can combine automation, explainability and verification are likely to find traction with enterprises that must trace data provenance for compliance and risk management.
What this means for the UK scene
Venture debt deals such as this one allow UK scale-ups to add non-dilutive capital to support product development and go-to-market expansion. For the data governance sector specifically, the Salica–Solidatus transaction illustrates investor appetite for companies that sit at the intersection of AI tooling and regulatory compliance — a space that differentially benefits incumbent-heavy industries undergoing digital and AI transformation.
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