Manchester cybersecurity startup Cytix has closed a $7m (£5.1m) Series A round led by Northern Gritstone, which put in £3m, to scale a platform that assesses the security risk of software changes generated by AI coding tools.
Founded in 2022 by Ben Armstrong, Thomas Ballin and Matt Milan, Cytix sells software that plugs directly into an enterprise's software development lifecycle. Rather than cataloguing known vulnerabilities, the platform continuously monitors code changes, weighs the business risk each one introduces, decides on a response and logs evidence of how the issue was handled for compliance purposes.
Northern Gritstone, the Leeds-based investor that backs science and technology spin-outs across the North of England, led the round. It was joined by existing backers Auriga Cyber Ventures and NPIF II – PXN Equity Finance, the fund managed by PXN Ventures as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II. The £3m commitment from Northern Gritstone accounts for roughly three-fifths of the round.
The raise lands squarely on a problem the company argues is worsening. As AI-assisted coding, agentic workflows and continuous delivery push up the volume and frequency of software changes, Cytix contends that conventional security tools can identify vulnerabilities but cannot explain the risk attached to any individual change made at machine speed.
Research cited by the company underlines the anxiety among buyers. Some 62 per cent of security leaders believe risk within their organisations is shifting from a latent concern to an immediate one, while only 38 per cent strongly agree that their organisation is prepared for the volume of AI-generated code entering its systems.
The Series A will fund a wider rollout of the change risk management platform, with Cytix targeting enterprise customers and firms in regulated industries where governing software change is a compliance obligation. Buyers can reach the product directly or through managed-service partnerships with NCC Group and KPMG, the latter giving the young company a route into large corporate accounts.
The cheque is a notable vote of confidence in a Manchester deep-tech name at a moment when early-stage security capital remains selective. It also reinforces the North of England's cluster of specialist investors: all three participants in the round are Northern-focused funds, a sign of how regional capital is coalescing around home-grown cybersecurity.
For Cytix, the immediate task is converting a topical thesis into recurring revenue before larger incumbents fold change-risk analysis into their own suites. Terms beyond the headline figure, including the post-money valuation and resulting ownership split, were not disclosed.
*Original source: UKTN
