OneClickComply, a Sunderland-based cybersecurity startup, has closed a £1 million seed funding round to accelerate product development and expand its sales and support teams. The investment, led by Mercia Ventures via the North East Accelerate Fund and Northstar Ventures through the Venture Sunderland Fund and Northstar EIS Growth Fund, brings total capital raised by the company to over £2.4 million.

According to the announcement, the fresh funding will support product enhancement, four new hires, and scaling of customer-facing operations. The company plans to use the capital to strengthen its automated compliance platform, which targets small and medium-sized businesses facing increasingly complex certification and regulatory requirements.

The compliance automation problem OneClickComply solves

OneClickComply operates in a growing market driven by procurement and contracting demands that require businesses to prove their cyber and data protection capabilities before deals close. The startup claims its platform can automate up to 90% of the work involved in standards including Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001, and SOC 2 — a significant efficiency gain for organisations without in-house security specialists.

The platform combines continuous monitoring, automated penetration testing, and vulnerability management with policy generation and evidence collection for auditors. It also offers one-click configuration of security settings across systems such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and AWS, replacing manual, labour-intensive processes.

A key differentiator, according to the startup, is its post-certification approach. Rather than stopping at audit completion, OneClickComply continues to monitor environments and attempts automatic remediation of issues — addressing what founder Connor Greig describes as "the part everyone forgets about." The company reports that monthly recurring revenue has doubled in the past six months, serving customers ranging from enterprise buyers to solo traders.

Investor backing and regional growth

The seed round reflects investor confidence in OneClickComply's market timing and product-market fit. Owen Conquest, Investor at Mercia Ventures, said: "OneClickComply offers a unique value proposition through its ability to automatically detect and remediate data compliance issues without the need for specialist intervention. This investment will support the company's continued growth, enabling it to capitalise on the increasing demand for automated compliance solutions driven by strong regulatory and market tailwinds."

Tom O'Neill, Investment Manager at Northstar Ventures, added: "We're very pleased to support OneClickComply with further investment from our Venture Sunderland Fund and EIS Growth Fund. The business has grown significantly since our initial investment and it is tapping into an increasingly complex compliance and cyber security market where the risks of a breach or non-compliance are continuously rising."

The regional backing underlines active investor interest in the North East and the role of regional funds in supporting early-stage cybersecurity ventures. Jason Hobbs, Chief Executive of North East Fund, noted: "It's great to see OneClickComply, a Sunderland-based business, secure investment to support its continued growth. We're proud to support businesses across Sunderland and the wider North East, and help companies like OneClickComply grow and create new opportunities in the region."

Founder and business background

OneClickComply was founded in 2024 by Connor Greig, who identified compliance friction while working with companies in the Octopus Group. The company now employs 12 people and plans to add four more roles with the new funding.

In the announcement, Greig said: "Every business now gets asked to prove its systems are secure, usually by a customer who's about to sign. The answer shouldn't be three months and a consultant. We automate 90% of the work, fix the issues we find instead of just reporting them, and keep everything in place afterwards, which is the part everyone forgets about. That's why we've doubled revenue in six months — because this problem isn't going anywhere."

Broader context for UK cybersecurity funding

OneClickComply's funding round sits within a broader pattern of investor interest in automated compliance tools. These platforms sit at the intersection of rising regulatory expectations, tighter procurement standards, and operational constraints facing many small businesses. For UK cybersecurity startups, demonstrable compliance and continuous monitoring can be key differentiators when competing for enterprise contracts or serving regulated industries.

The investment also highlights the importance of regional venture funding pathways. UK founders seeking capital should note that regional accelerator funds, EIS-backed vehicles, and SEIS schemes remain active sources of early-stage capital, particularly in sectors like cybersecurity where regional hubs are developing outside London.

For organisations evaluating compliance tools, OneClickComply's focus on post-certification remediation and its integration with commonly used platforms like Microsoft 365 and AWS may be relevant factors, particularly for SMEs seeking to reduce both the cost and complexity of maintaining certification over time.