The news will be delivered by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, in a speech at the Grand Central Tech event space in New York this morning (US time).

The investment is being led by Storm Ventures, a West Coast US firm that specialises in scaling enterprise software as a service (SaaS) businesses and has invested in Marketo and MobileIron amongst others. Passion Capital, which invested in Digital Shadows at its seed stage, is also participating in this round. The VC line up is completed by TenEleven Ventures, a cyber-security specialist fund recently set up by Alex Doll (founder of encryption pioneer PGP) and Mark Hatfield (a prominent investor in Cylance, CounterTack and Foundstone).

Several notable industry figures in cyber security are participating as angel investors in this round including Tim Belcher, former CTO at Netwitness and RSA.

This round is the largest that Digital Shadows has announced to date. It will use the investment to extend its operations in the US with its first overseas offices. This will see the establishment of Digital Shadows Inc with premises opened in San Francisco and New York City. The development will enable it to provide its multinational clients with a local presence in the US and grow its sales and marketing operations both in the US and UK.

Ryan Floyd at Storm Ventures comments: “We are investing in Digital Shadows because we see huge potential and believe it brings something new to the market. Storm believes we can accelerate the company’s growth and we look forward to using our reach in the US to help the company in its next phase of development.”

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said: “Digital Shadows is another fantastic example of why US investors are turning to London’s tech talent.

“My export programme is opening doors for forward thinking firms like Digital Shadows to explore trade opportunities in the United States and to expand their networks. I want to encourage even more of London’s companies to benefit from exporting to this dynamic market, building on the strong existing ties with the UK.”

Angel investor and former CTO of Netwitness, Tim Belcher outlined his reasons for backing the company: “I have invested in Digital Shadows because I genuinely it has something unique to offer the market. The traction the company has made already particularly in the hard-to crack-financial services sector sets it up well for future expansion.”

Alastair Paterson, CEO of Digital Shadows comments: “Our investors bring a wealth of expertise that will be invaluable to Digital Shadows as we commence the next stage of our growth plan. It was vital that we found the right fit in terms of culture, contacts and experience. We feel we have assembled some of the very best in terms of technology and investment expertise globally and can’t wait to grow the business with them starting with the largest market in the world for cyber security services - the United States.”

Established in 2011, Digital Shadows provides a suite of managed services which helps protects organisations from a range of threats. By monitoring 80 million sources across 26 different languages Digital Shadows services are tuned to detect a range of possible threats to organisations and individuals including leaked or compromised company data, stolen intellectual property and the identification of potentially hostile cyber-criminal groups. Digital Shadows provides this service to several multinational companies and is working with the Bank of England on its CBEST programme to deliver intelligence-led security tests to help keep the UK banking sector safe from attack.

Speaking last month on a UK Trade & Investment mission to Washington DC, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “The UK is already leading the way in cyber security and this government is committed to ensuring it continues to be a leader in this multi-billion dollar industry. That’s why I’m supporting small businesses like Digital Shadows, a London-based company already fending off US competitors to win business in the States who are expanding to San Francisco and New York to build on their success.”