CSignum, a Scotland-based wireless communications company founded in 2020 and headquartered near Edinburgh, has raised £2.6 million to accelerate commercial deployment of its technology for underwater, underground and other hard-to-connect environments.
The company, which is expanding its workforce across the UK, US and European Union, said the funding will support commercial expansion and manufacturing scale-up for its EM2 product portfolio. Its technology is designed to transmit data through water, ice, rock, soil and concrete, enabling monitoring and sensing applications where conventional wireless communications can be difficult to use.
The latest funding follows a £6 million investment completed with the company’s existing investor group in April 2025. CSignum said it has since moved from pilot projects into volume deployments with multiple UK water utilities and international customers.
Archangels, PXN Ventures, Scottish Enterprise, the British Business Bank and US-based angel investors participated in the latest round. The company said the investment will help expand production and support deployments across several markets.
Water Quality Monitoring Drives Early Commercial Growth
Water quality monitoring has emerged as a key application for CSignum in the UK, supported by regulatory requirements under the AMP8 investment cycle.
The company said Section 82 requirements call for continuous water quality measurements at combined storm overflows (CSOs) and sewage discharge points. Utilities are required to monitor 25% of England’s more than 14,000 CSOs during AMP8, which runs to 2030. The remaining sites are expected to be monitored under AMP9 through 2035.
CSignum now has deployments with several UK water utility companies, according to the company.
The technology is aimed at connecting sensors and monitoring equipment in locations where conventional radio communications can be limited by the surrounding environment. CSignum uses electromagnetic field signalling to transmit data through materials that can obstruct or weaken conventional wireless signals.
The approach is designed to reduce reliance on physical cabling for certain monitoring applications, potentially allowing utilities and other infrastructure operators to collect data from difficult-to-access locations.
CSignum is also pursuing applications outside the UK water sector. It is working on a smart buoy project in the Gulf of Mexico intended to enable additional sensing capabilities and has completed pilots with two major US water quality monitoring organisations.
In Asia, the company is supporting through-ground sensing for a large-scale critical infrastructure project. It is also evaluating other applications for its communications technology in infrastructure monitoring and sensing.
New CEO to Lead Commercial Expansion
The funding coincides with a leadership change. CSignum has appointed John Nicholls as chief executive officer, succeeding Jonathan Reeves, who will become chief strategy officer.
Nicholls has held CEO and chief commercial officer positions and has experience in international sales growth, fundraising, mergers and acquisitions and strategic partnerships. His background includes photonics, quantum technologies, space, semiconductors and electric vehicle infrastructure.
“I’m excited to be joining CSignum at this pivotal moment in its journey,” Nicholls said. “My focus now is turning that potential into large-scale deployments.”
Nicholls said the company’s technology addresses a communications gap between inaccessible parts of the physical world and digital and AI systems that increasingly depend on data from physical infrastructure.
Reeves, a US-based technology entrepreneur, led the company before the transition and will continue to work on strategy as CSignum expands its commercial operations.
Investors said the latest funding reflects progress in moving the technology from development and pilot projects toward wider commercial deployment.
Dan McKiddie, investment manager at Archangels, said CSignum had made strong commercial progress and that the investment reflected continued confidence in its technology and team.
Claire Cramm, investment manager at PXN Ventures, said underwater and underground environments remain difficult locations from which to extract data. She said CSignum’s approach could address those challenges without the cost and complexity associated with cabling.
Scottish Enterprise investment director Derek Shaw said advanced sensing and connectivity technologies represented a growth opportunity for Scotland, while US investor Rob Soni described CSignum’s electromagnetic field signalling as a new form of wireless communication capable of carrying data through water, ice, rock, soil and concrete.
CSignum said the latest funding round was heavily oversubscribed, although it did not disclose the valuation or the total amount sought by the company.
The company is positioning its technology within a broader push to connect sensors in physical infrastructure with digital monitoring and AI systems. Its near-term commercial focus includes water quality, while projects in the Gulf of Mexico, the United States and Asia point to potential applications across a wider range of infrastructure environments.
With production scaling and commercial deployments increasing, CSignum is now seeking to translate its technology’s performance in difficult environments into repeatable, larger-scale infrastructure applications.
