Technology firm behind police digitisation gets £600K helping hand

L-R Simon Hall (Coeus), Dave Furlong (Fund manager), Grant Peggie (BBB) and Chris Eccles (Coeus)

Cumbria-based technology company Coeus Software which is helping police forces with their “digitisation agenda” has received an investment of £603,000 from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund.

The funding from NPIF Maven Equity Finance, managed by Maven Capital Partners, will enable the Kendal company to expand its operations in Cumbria by building its sales team and implementing a new sales and marketing strategy.

Founded by software specialists Simon Hall and Chris Eccles, Coeus provides self-service and cloud-based mobility platforms to digitise day-to-day business and operational procedures and replace outdated manual, paper-based processes.

Coeus products align with the new ‘digitalisation’ agenda of the police force as well as new Police National Compliance procedures.

The need to ‘go digital’ increases in both the public and private sector on a daily basis, the company says. The benefits in digitising processes to drive efficiency and cost savings also affords users the chance to perform a better service with what is often severely limited resources.

With strong links to police forces across the UK, CEO, Hall, has 30 years’ experience in specialist technology projects in the police/military and public safety and commercial projects across the globe.

And, having already completed major projects for public and private sector clients, Cambridge University graduate Eccles, is responsible for software strategy, architecture and implementation as CTO and holds MSc in both Project Engineering and Software Development.

Hall said: “Coeus has created a mobility platform to enable smarter working.

“Our vision is to empower organisations to digitally transform their working processes to bring about swift, quantifiable and beneficial business change.

“This investment is perfectly timed, to enable us to expand into a growing market as customers move over to Office 365 and the Cloud.

“We are excited to grow our operations and provide fantastic new job opportunities in the North of England and develop our links with Northern universities.”

Jim Darlington, investment manager at Maven Capital Partners, said: “Coeus’ offering is innovative and will allow users of the software to seamlessly increase their mobile workforce’s productivity whilst saving time and money. Simon and Chris are experienced and dedicated with excellent contacts in the markets they are targeting and we look forward to working with them in driving the business forward.”

Jackie Arnold, vice chair of Cumbria LEP and member of NPIF SOB, said: “The first NPIF – Maven Equity Finance investment in Cumbria for Coeus is a key milestone as opportunities for SMEs to tap into the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund are now on stream.”

Ken Cooper, managing director at British Business Bank, said: “The Northern tech sector continues to thrive, so we’re pleased that Coeus has become our first equity investment in Cumbria.

“To date the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund has invested £31m in over 200 businesses, which has been down to the commitment of our fund managers and LEPs working in collaboration with businesses on the ground in all corners of the North.”

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