‘Pivotal moment’ as Scottish underwater monitoring scale-up secures £2.6 million

A West Lothian firm behind technology that improves underwater monitoring of critical infrastructure has secured £2.6 million as it looks to accelerate growth.

CSignum, which was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in Bathgate, said the funding would be used to support commercial expansion and manufacturing scale-up. Since completing a £6m investment with its existing investor group in April 2025, the firm has moved from pilot projects into volume deployments with a number of UK water utilities and international customers.

The latest investment supports CSignum’s mission to become an “indispensable enabler of AI in the physical world”, extending reliable data communications to underwater and below ground environments that have historically been impossible to connect.

Kyle Watson, mechanical engineer at CSignum. Picture by Stewart Attwood

The growth in sales has been underpinned by an act requiring continuous water quality measurements at combined storm overflows, as well as at sewage discharge points.

Archangels, PXN Ventures, Scottish Enterprise, the British Business Bank and a group of US-based angel investors have provided additional investment.

CSignum is exploring other strategic opportunities for its technology, and is enabling new sensing capabilities in a “smart buoy” project in the Gulf of Mexico. The company has also completed successful pilots with two major US water quality monitoring organisations and is supporting through-ground sensing for a large-scale, critical infrastructure project in Asia.

CSignum also confirmed that John Nicholls has been appointed as its new chief executive succeeding Jonathan Reeves, who will transition to the role of chief strategy officer. Nicholls is said to bring broad experience as both a chief executive and chief commercial officer in international sales growth, fundraising, mergers and acquisitions and strategic partnerships across a wide range of market sectors including photonics, quantum technologies, space, semiconductors and electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure.

Nicholls said: “I’m excited to be joining CSignum at this pivotal moment in its journey. The team has built a differentiated technology and strong customer relationships across diverse market sectors, and my focus now is turning that potential into large-scale deployments.

“More broadly, CSignum exists to close the communications gap between inaccessible parts of the physical world and the digital and AI systems that increasingly depend on them. This investment lets us do exactly that, faster.”

Dan McKiddie, investment manager at Archangels, said: “CSignum continues to make strong commercial progress, and this investment reflects our continued confidence in the team and the technology, which is beginning to fulfil its potential of disrupting established markets. We’re pleased to back John’s transition into the CEO role as the business enters its next phase of growth.”

Claire Cramm, investment manager at PXN Ventures, said: “The physical world has always been the hardest place to get data out of, particularly anything underwater or underground. CSignum’s approach solves that without the cost and complexity of cabling, with monitoring requirements in water and other infrastructure sectors becoming more stringent.”

Derek Shaw at Scottish Enterprise added: “Advanced sensing and connectivity technologies are a key growth opportunity for Scotland, and companies such as CSignum can play a vital role in strengthening our economy by scaling internationally, creating high-value jobs and bringing innovative Scottish solutions to global markets.”