Crowd Threat, a Newcastle-based threat intelligence platform, has raised £1 million to expand its coverage and develop a second product. The funding comes from the North East Accelerate Fund, managed by Mercia Ventures, and NPIF II – PXN Equity Finance, managed by PXN Ventures as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II.
The platform was founded in 2025 by Michael McCabe, who spent more than two decades in intelligence work with the British military and private security companies in Iraq. He also founded Intelligence Fusion, a software-enabled intelligence provider acquired by Sigma7 in 2022. Crowd Threat was built with Newcastle tech company Wubbleyou and went live in June this year.
Rather than relying on desk-based analysts who monitor media, social media and data feeds remotely, Crowd Threat uses local contributors, typically security or intelligence professionals, who are paid for each incident they report. Reports are first rated according to the contributor's trust level, then verified with the help of AI and human reviewers. The platform covers incidents from armed conflict and terrorist attacks to social unrest and crime.
It has more than 200 contributors across 17 countries on six continents. McCabe wants to extend coverage, particularly in Africa, South America and Asia, and ultimately reach up to 10,000 contributors. He says the model is designed to cut costs, capture threats closer to the source and spot emerging risks earlier.
The investment will also fund seven new jobs and work on a second product intended to identify community tensions and give early warning of riots and outbreaks of violence. Demand for threat intelligence is rising as geopolitical risk pushes corporates, as well as governments and security providers, to protect overseas operations and supply chains.
Laurence Tan, senior investment associate at PXN Ventures, said Crowd Threat brings new thinking to the field and aligns with the government's Modern Industrial Strategy, which highlights defence as a key area.
