Funding news · Oct 10, 2026
Ghost Shift Raises £250K Pre-Seed Led by Manchester Angels
Ghost Shift Secures £250K Pre-Seed Round
Manchester-headquartered cyber security startup Ghost Shift has raised £250,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by Manchester Angels. The round also drew participation from Cambridge Angels, Ante-Bellum Angels and Halceon.
What Ghost Shift Does
Ghost Shift treats the online information environment as an operational domain. The company helps government and industry clients detect, analyse and respond to coordinated digital influence activity.
Its platform applies AI to map activity across contested or manipulated information spaces. Beyond the platform, the team provides online intelligence collection, influence-strategy consultancy and risk-management support.
Operational Pedigree
The founding team draws on more than 20 years of operational experience supporting the UK Intelligence Community and law enforcement — a background that positions the company at the intersection of national security and commercial cyber defence.
Deal Snapshot
- Company: Ghost Shift
- Headquarters: Manchester, UK
- Sector: Cyber security / information environment operations
- Round: Pre-Seed
- Amount: £250,000
- Lead investor: Manchester Angels
- Additional investors: Cambridge Angels, Ante-Bellum Angels, Halceon
- Announced: 10 October 2026
Why It Matters
The pre-seed round brings together a syndicate of angel investors spanning Manchester and Cambridge, alongside Ante-Bellum Angels and Halceon. For a company operating in the sensitive space of digital influence detection, that investor base provides early-stage capital as Ghost Shift builds out its AI-driven platform and consultancy offering.
The focus on coordinated digital influence activity places Ghost Shift in a category of security vendors addressing threats that sit outside conventional network defence — an area of growing relevance for both government and industry buyers.
Acquisition Angle
Ghost Shift's combination of an AI platform, intelligence-collection services and a founding team with deep UK Intelligence Community experience makes it a candidate to watch in the information-operations security segment. At pre-seed stage with £250,000 raised, the company is early in its commercial build-out, and its progress in converting government and industry engagements into recurring platform revenue will be the key metric for strategic acquirers and follow-on investors alike.