Sandy McKinnon
Partner @ Pentech Ventures
Sandy McKinnon is a seed investor at Pentech Ventures focused on Software and IaaS. Sandy has been a Pentech partner since 2001. His areas of interest include security technology, the applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence, and new infrastructure technologies such as blockchain and microservices.He has led investments in edge-caching company Velocix (sold to Alcatel-Lucent), predictive analytics companySeeWhy (sold to SAP), machine-learning computer-vision company Omniperception (sold to Digital Barriers), audio effects company Sonaptic (sold to Wolfson) and real-time big data analytics company Acunu (sold to Apple).Sandy has also been deeply involved in commercialising technology from Universities for most of his life and still helps Old College Capital at Edinburgh University. He has recently been involved with setting up and making operational techstartNI, helping the team there deliver a micro-seed fund for Northern Ireland. Sandy had a Research Fellowship at Cambridge University, working in Nanotechnology with many of the pioneers in the field. He has a Ph.D. and B.Sc.(first) in Physics from the University of Dundee.
- Total investments:
- 7
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 43%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Sandy McKinnon invests in
Stages Sandy McKinnon invests in
Countries Sandy McKinnon invests in
Contacts
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| Work email | ||
| Personal email | ||
| Work phone | ||
| Personal phone | ||
| Socials |
Investment Focus
Industry
- Software 3 (43%)
- IaaS 1 (14%)
- SaaS 1 (14%)
- Tourism 1 (14%)
- Big Data 1 (14%)
Stage
- Seed 3 (43%)
- Series A 2 (29%)
- Funding Round 1 (14%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| eola is an expertly built operating system for experience providers. We enable businesses to automate their processes - from taking bookings to resource management - while significantly increasing their revenue. Our unique technology makes it easy for our partners to manage all day-to-day admin, saving them valuable time to focus on deliveringoutstanding experiences. | $2.7M / Seed / Apr 02, 2021 | ||
| Bringing a single new drug to the market costs $2.9bn, often delivering an intervention that barely differs from those already in the market. Projections into the future are not promising, with an expected 50% drop in R&D output every nine years.At GTN they are searching the astronomically large space of drug-like molecules with their uniquepatented technology, Generative Tensorial Networks. Their software combines and builds upon techniques from machine learning and quantum physics to simulate, filter and search for molecules, halving development costs and discovering molecules entirely hidden from view. | $2.8M / Seed / May 04, 2018 | ||
| Acunu Analytics offers a platform for low-latency, continuous analytics on big data; powering dashboards and embedded applications to monitor and control environments in manufacturing, telecommunications, media, financial services and other industries where high-velocity data must be analysed in real time.The Cassandra NoSQL database is at thecore of the Acunu offering and Acunu is a very engaged Cassandra contributor donating many of its innovations back to the community. Acunu was founded in 2009 and is backed by some of Europe’s top VC funds. Started by a unique mix of researchers and engineers from Cambridge and Oxford Universities, Acunu has offices in London (near Old Street, London’s “Silicon Roundabout”) and California. | Sep 19, 2012 | ||
CertiVox
|
CertiVox solutions deliver simple, powerful information security to all things Internet (mainframes, too!), protecting business and individual privacy through the cloud and at rest. CertiVox was founded in 2009 to provide technology and services based on a simple belief: that everyone deserves the right to secure their information exchangessimply and easily. CertiVox's leading-edge encryption, key management and identity management solutions are currently in use at hundreds of the world’s leading corporations and used by individuals across the globe to protect their privacy.The companies passion is to create and share unique, cutting-edge cryptographic innovations for enterprise cloud computing and all things Internet. CertiVox are the only company in the global market today that has the technology in place to arm businesses and individuals with easy-to-use certificateless security solutions for any device and platform.Whether you are a business that wants to safeguard your company’s intellectual property, an ISV or SaaS provider that needs to embed cryptography and key management into your application, or an individual who wants to preserve the privacy of your personal data, CertiVox gives you the power to secure your information for all things Internet.CertiVox’s leading-edge solutions – including MIRACL (Multiprecision Integer and Rational Arithmetic C/C++ Library) Cryptographic SDK, on-demand encryption Key Management Service (KMS) and Identity Management Service (IDMS) – enable cloud service providers, independent software vendors (ISVs), communication providers, and smart device and semiconductor manufacturers to secure their voice and data communication solutions with ease.The PrivateSky Secure Information Exchange Service (SIX) gives individuals, businesses and their partners and customers easy-to-use tools to quickly encrypt email, files and documents without complex infrastructure or user burden. Compliance with mandatory encryption and privacy statues has never been easier.The bottom line: CertiVox's revolutionary certificateless cryptography, identity and key management solutions have taken the hassle out of Internet security, making it easy to securely exchange your information in any form, any time. | $1.9M / Series A / Nov 01, 2011 | |
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CertiVox
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CertiVox solutions deliver simple, powerful information security to all things Internet (mainframes, too!), protecting business and individual privacy through the cloud and at rest. CertiVox was founded in 2009 to provide technology and services based on a simple belief: that everyone deserves the right to secure their information exchangessimply and easily. CertiVox's leading-edge encryption, key management and identity management solutions are currently in use at hundreds of the world’s leading corporations and used by individuals across the globe to protect their privacy.The companies passion is to create and share unique, cutting-edge cryptographic innovations for enterprise cloud computing and all things Internet. CertiVox are the only company in the global market today that has the technology in place to arm businesses and individuals with easy-to-use certificateless security solutions for any device and platform.Whether you are a business that wants to safeguard your company’s intellectual property, an ISV or SaaS provider that needs to embed cryptography and key management into your application, or an individual who wants to preserve the privacy of your personal data, CertiVox gives you the power to secure your information for all things Internet.CertiVox’s leading-edge solutions – including MIRACL (Multiprecision Integer and Rational Arithmetic C/C++ Library) Cryptographic SDK, on-demand encryption Key Management Service (KMS) and Identity Management Service (IDMS) – enable cloud service providers, independent software vendors (ISVs), communication providers, and smart device and semiconductor manufacturers to secure their voice and data communication solutions with ease.The PrivateSky Secure Information Exchange Service (SIX) gives individuals, businesses and their partners and customers easy-to-use tools to quickly encrypt email, files and documents without complex infrastructure or user burden. Compliance with mandatory encryption and privacy statues has never been easier.The bottom line: CertiVox's revolutionary certificateless cryptography, identity and key management solutions have taken the hassle out of Internet security, making it easy to securely exchange your information in any form, any time. | $1.5M / Series A / Mar 28, 2011 | |
| Acunu Analytics offers a platform for low-latency, continuous analytics on big data; powering dashboards and embedded applications to monitor and control environments in manufacturing, telecommunications, media, financial services and other industries where high-velocity data must be analysed in real time.The Cassandra NoSQL database is at thecore of the Acunu offering and Acunu is a very engaged Cassandra contributor donating many of its innovations back to the community. Acunu was founded in 2009 and is backed by some of Europe’s top VC funds. Started by a unique mix of researchers and engineers from Cambridge and Oxford Universities, Acunu has offices in London (near Old Street, London’s “Silicon Roundabout”) and California. | $2.8M / Series A / Jan 01, 2011 | ||
| Acunu Analytics offers a platform for low-latency, continuous analytics on big data; powering dashboards and embedded applications to monitor and control environments in manufacturing, telecommunications, media, financial services and other industries where high-velocity data must be analysed in real time.The Cassandra NoSQL database is at thecore of the Acunu offering and Acunu is a very engaged Cassandra contributor donating many of its innovations back to the community. Acunu was founded in 2009 and is backed by some of Europe’s top VC funds. Started by a unique mix of researchers and engineers from Cambridge and Oxford Universities, Acunu has offices in London (near Old Street, London’s “Silicon Roundabout”) and California. | $1M / Seed / Jul 01, 2009 |
Co-Investors
About Pentech Ventures
Pentech Ventures is a venture capital fund focused on finding category defining software companies. Their passion is helping founders develop their startup into an internationally successful organisation. They have done this multiple times, partnering with leading VCs, corporations and investment banks along the way. They consider any opportunitycapable of becoming a market leader but are most comfortable being the first venture investor, supporting founders through the early stages of proving product and market fit. Their initial investment is likely to be £500K to £2M, with up to £10M invested over the lifetime of the investment.They invest in founders who are ambitious to build a global company, have the passion and ability to attract the best team and who are focused on the data and understand the key drivers in proving and building their business. They support the founders they invest in to develop and grow with their business.
Pentech Ventures Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Craig Anderson
Partner
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Eddie Anderson
Founding Partner
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Sandy McKinnon
Partner
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Andy Duncan
Financial Controller
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Marc Moens
Partner
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FAQ
What does Sandy McKinnon invest in?
Sandy McKinnon invests primarily in Software, IaaS and SaaS startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 7 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United Kingdom. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
How do I contact Sandy McKinnon?
Public channels for Sandy McKinnon include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and Facebook. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
When did Sandy McKinnon last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Sandy McKinnon closed in Apr 2021. Shizune tracks 7 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Oct 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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