Our mission is to help investigators use OSINT for good by equipping them with the software they need to combat criminal activity effectively.
Our story
Videris was developed and launched to help professional investigators and analysts make sense of the wealth of data available on the internet.
Today, huge and growing volumes of publicly available data are available online. Increasing numbers of organisations are trying to make use of this information to address critical challenges; a process known as Open Source Intelligence, or OSINT. OSINT is used to fight major societal problems, such as terrorism, financial crime and human trafficking – but investigators often rely on manual processes to leverage OSINT for their investigations.
Connecting data for a safer world
In 2014, we realised that the people working against these crimes needed the best possible technology to help them, so we set out creating Videris, the first investigations platform that specialised in open source intelligence.
Today, the Videris platform helps investigators across a range of sectors and use cases to work faster and gain better insights, combining internal data with external data, and ensuring organisations benefit from improved efficiency and effectiveness in the fight against crime. Our customers include major international banks, governments and global corporates, who use Videris to stop crime and make the world a safer place.
Our Achievements
20+
Global Partners
30+
Countries where Videris is used
60%
of the Blackdot team is dedicated to continuous R&D
Our Team
Stuart Clarke
Chief Executive Officer
Stuart leads Blackdot's overall strategy and direction. He is an internationally respected investigations and cybersecurity expert with extensive business management, consultancy, and leadership expertise. Before joining Blackdot, Stuart was a Regional Director at Nuix, with global responsibility for Nuix’s Security & Intelligence division, where he was instrumental in driving record growth for the company.
Antonia Edmunds
Chief Commercial Officer
Antonia leads Blackdot's commercial operations, and is responsible for defining and optimising the go to market strategy to drive and scale revenue growth. This role spans sales strategy, marketing, business development, existing customer growth and partnerships. Antonia has over 15 years experience in enterprise software and start up SaaS solutions in both Europe and Asia, and is passionate about technology, data and building teams that deliver growth.
Adam de Courcy Ling
Executive Chairman
Adam is an experienced software sector investor and director. He was an investor and director in fintech software vendor Multifonds, sold in 2015 to Temenos AG, and lead investor and director at an artificial intelligence vendor, Expertmaker, sold in 2016 to eBay Inc. Prior to this, he was an M&A banker in the technology sector in Europe, as Head of European Technology M&A at Credit Suisse until 2003 and a partner at Arma Partners until 2010.
James Randall
Chief Technology Officer
James leads the technical teams at Blackdot. He brings extensive engineering leadership experience and a passion for using innovative technology to analyse data and deliver outstanding solutions to customers. James has worked with teams of all sizes across industries, delivering mobile, SaaS and on-premise software. He keeps his hand in as a practitioner through OSS contributions, and by presenting at user groups and conferences.
Mark Stevens
Chief Client Engagement Officer
Mark advises clients across the public and commercial sectors on how they can improve their investigative capabilities through the use of technology and data. He works closely alongside strategic clients to ensure they get maximum benefit from Videris. Prior to joining Blackdot, Mark spent ten years in government service managing investigations and operations across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Alex Davies
Head of Customer Success
Alex joined Blackdot in 2013 and has played a key role in shaping Videris, as well as establishing Blackdot's Customer Success team. He has extensive experience using Videris to answer a wide range of investigative questions for an array of blue chip clients. He now leads our customer success function, using that experience to help our customers leverage Videris and apply it to their complex investigations.
Rebecca Lindley
Marketing Lead
Rebecca coordinates Blackdot’s marketing and brand awareness activities, in order to drive awareness of Videris and its capabilities. She works with users and experts in Videris’ target sector to understand how Videris can improve outcomes in different types of investigations. Before joining Blackdot Rebecca led the first marketing function at another Cambridge software company. She has a degree in Russian and German from Cambridge University.
Shaun O'Mahony
Founder and Non-Executive Director
Shaun founded Blackdot Solutions in Cambridge in 2011. Since then he has seen it take on investment and new directors, and grow to a team of 30 staff working in offices in Cambridge and London. Prior to founding Blackdot, Shaun worked as a Solutions Architect at Detica (now BAE Systems).
Our Advisors
Haibo Zhang
Financial Services Advisor
Haibo is former Global Head of Analytics for Financial Crime and Threat Mitigation at HSBC, where he was in charge of analytics for all Transaction Monitoring Systems. He has designed and implemented key analytics utilized by more than 20 global banks. Today, he serves as advisor to the Global Head of Data and Analytics of FinCrime at a major international bank, the Monitor for a major US brokerage firm, and advisor to ML/AI-based FinTech companies Haibo holds a PhD in Computational Biology.
Ash Alexander-Cooper
Government Advisor
Ash is a former specialist military unit commander, world-championship athlete and international musician. During a diverse 22-year regular career, Ash served as an airborne soldier, operational helicopter pilot, jungle warfare and counter-terrorist specialist, spending 82 months deployed. Since retirement, Ash has been a Senior Partner at McChrystal Group, led international business development at Palantir Technologies, runs a Leadership Development firm and is Chief Commercial Officer at General System. Wounded multiple times, Ash is proud to support several international veteran and mental health charities.
Jennifer Hanley-Giersch
Jennifer Hanley-Giersch
Jennifer is a co-founder and managing partner of Berlin Risk, co-founder of BCF Partners, Chairwoman of ALL AML, and founding and board member of the ACAMS Germany Chapter. She has been working in investigations and anti-financial crime for twenty years and is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist and a Certified Fraud Examiner. Jennifer has published widely on compliance topics relating to financial crime issues and has helped develop industry standards and tools around customer due diligence and risk analysis.
