Scottish startup Cyan Forensics, which develops digital forensic technology to help law enforcement catch criminals faster, has been named winner of PitchGovTech.

The pitch competition took place as part of the GovTech Summit 2019, where political leaders and startup founders from across Europe gathered in Paris to discuss the role of technology in society and how they can work together to improve public sectors.

PitchGovTech is marketed as the largest ever startup pitch event dedicated to innovative technologies to advance the public sector. Organisations’ that took part came from fields as diverse as aerospace, agriculture, clean technology, construction, education, financial services, healthcare services, energy, robotics, security and software.

Hundreds of startups from across the globe entered PitchGovTech hoping to be one of the ten finalist startups chosen to pitch against the clock for three minutes, followed by two minutes of Q&A by the judging panel. Only those deemed to be taking on the public sector in extremely innovative and transformative ways made it through to pitch on the day.

Senior political leaders from across Europe in attendance included French Digital Secretary Cedric O; Florence Parly, French Minister for the Armed Forces; Kersti Kaljulaid, President of Estonia; and Mircea Geoana, Deputy Secretary General, NATO. They were joined by start-up and tech sector leaders including Travis Vanderzanden, CEO of Bird; Cyril Lage CEO of Cap Collectif; and Robin Klein, Founding Partner at LocalGlobe.

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Cyan Forensics’ CEO Ian Stevenson, said: “We are delighted to have won PitchGovTech. Cyan Forensics’ goal is to use tech for good, building and selling transformative new technologies to help law enforcement, social media companies, and cloud providers find and block harmful content from pedophiles and terrorists. Images and videos shared online are the lifeblood of groups that represent a great threat to our society.

“Prosecuting people who access this content and even better, blocking it from circulating online, are vital for public safety.”

Cyan Forensics’ prize consists of $15,000 worth of Amazon Web Service (AWS) credits, a meeting with the UK Department for International Trade and a MacBook Pro.