SOUTH AFRICA – VoxCroft Analytics, an open-source intelligence company, has raised close to US$2 million in Series A funding from Knife Capital, a South African venture capital company specialized in helping brands build a global presence.

VoxCroft Analytics will use the funding to expedite its already-rapid expansion in the United States and other international markets.

Founded in 2018, VoxCroft specialises in open-source intelligence (OSINT), an oft-neglected source of insight differentiated from the other forms of intelligence such as human intelligence (HUMINT) or signals intelligence (SIGINT) in that it relies on open-source data.

Basically, the startup is building state-of-the-art intelligence and risk analytics solutions for government and private customers, helping decision-makers by providing them with accurate, timely, and relevant information.

VoxCroft currently has offices in South Africa and the United States, with a growing global team of more than 100 across 13 countries.

The US$2 million raised from Knife Capital will help the company to expedite strategic expansion plans. South Africa chief executive officer (CEO) Barend Lutz said the startup was excited to work with Knife Capital on its growth plan.

“The collection and analytical components in open-source intelligence are increasingly sophisticated and critical to public and private sector success in anticipating risk faster than ever before,” he said.

“With Knife Capital investment, VoxCroft is poised to redefine how information can be discovered, analyzed, and delivered across the globe.

“With their focus on tech, Knife Capital understands how our new form of intelligence tradecraft synthesises machine learning, exclusive machine translation, data science, and human wisdom.”

Andrea Böhmert, managing partner at Knife Capital, outlined why Knife Capital considered VoxCroft for investment.

“At Knife Capital we believe in investing in forward-focused companies that solve real problems and can generate great returns for our shareholders,” she said.

“VoxCroft fits the ideal investor model. We’ve been tracking VoxCroft for some time and have been impressed by the technology, the team, and the depth of insights the company is able to provide to a wide range of customers with diverse intelligence needs.

“What convinced us was their ability to prognosticate the recent insurgency activity in northern Mozambique and incredibly fast, accurate, and relevant response to the riots in South Africa. Our funding will help the company to make some immediate key strategic appointments and propel growth plans in anticipation of a larger funding round that will be raised in the next 6-12 months.”

This year, Knife Capital has made a number of investments in bourgeoning South African technology start-up companies.

The VC investment manager aims to accelerate the international expansion of African innovation-driven businesses by leveraging knowledge, networks and funding.

In October, Industry 4.0 solution business Stone Three raised an undisclosed amount of expansion funding from Knife Capital.

In July, the VC firm, together with Allan Gray E2 Ventures, pumped money into online home services marketplace Kandua.

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