LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Pires Investments has agreed to invest €0.25m (?0.22m) in Visibility Blockchain, a private company incorporated in Ireland which trades under the name Getvisibility, it announced on Tuesday.
The AIM-traded firm described Getvisibility as an artificial intelligence (AI) security company, which works to address the "substantial and increasing problem" which corporations were facing in storing, sorting, accessing and protecting data.

It said it has developed and launched a software platform using AI which delivers visibility over data such as Microsoft Word documents or PDF files, for enterprises, by automatically scanning and classifying data.

It explained that Getvisibility assists organisations to gain control over unstructured data by categorising, organising, protecting, and by making it cloud-based, ultimately allowing the data to be searchable.

The software enabled companies to visualise their data footprint, where new and changing data risks emerge, and allowing proactive data management and security, Pires explained.

Getvisibility's technology utilised "deep learning AI", comprising a lightweight enterprise architecture that provided "fast and accurate" visibility of all the data within a client's digital environment.

It said it removed the need for teams of people to deal with the problem of manual input, and eliminated the requirement for legacy technology.

The company's scalable AI model was said to be adapted for industry-specific data structures, and could process and understand unstructured information as it was being created, as well as organising and structuring historical data repositories.

Getvisibility already had an international blue-chip client base across a number of sectors, including insurance, healthcare, data provision and finance, including Ireland's largest healthcare provided, Laya Healthcare, and FBD Insurance.

It operates in a developing market estimated to be worth around $4bn annually, Pires explained, which was driven by the increased volume of data produced and required to be stored accessibly for regulatory as well as commercial reasons, and the need to protect data from cyber-attacks.

The firm had applications in the finance, health and government sectors, as well as being applicable for a "wide range" of commercial companies.

Pires said its €0.25m investment was made via a subscription for new shares as part of a wider €1.25m fundraise by Getvisibility, giving it a non-material minority interest.

The consideration was satisfied through its existing cash resources.

At the same time, Sure Valley Ventures (SVV), the venture capital fund focused on investing in the software technology sector with a specific focus on AI, the 'internet of things' (IoT) and augmented and virtual reality, has invested €0.75m in Getvisibility.

Pires has around a 13% interest in SVV, and SVV currently had a portfolio of nine investee companies at different stages of development.

Additionally, Pires updated the market on the sale of one of SVV's portfolio companies, Artomatix, which it first announced on 23 December.

It confirmed that its initial distribution due from this sale, of €0.72m, had been received, representing a "significant return" compared to its initial investment of ?1.1m into SVV, which was made on 21 November.

"We are very pleased to have been offered this new investment opportunity which is already operational and which we believe has exceptional growth possibilities," said chairman Peter Redmond.

"Furthermore, the sale of Artomatix and the sizeable cash return received so soon after our investment in SVV, demonstrates the value of our connection with that company.

"We hope for further positive developments in SVV's portfolio during 2020 while continuing to seek and to make other investments."

At 0841 GMT, shares in Pires Investments were up 1.36% at 2.23p.

Email this article to a friend

or share it with one of these popular networks:

• DIGG
• FACEBOOK
• STUMBLEUPON
• MIXX
• YAHOO BUZZ
• DELICIOUS
• REDDIT
• NEWSVINE