Meet Clue: the world leading investigation software providers

When we think of investigations, our minds naturally think of policing. But investigations are happening everywhere. By identifying wrongdoing and holding it to account, investigations protect us and the world around us from harm and deter criminals from exploiting it.

“When we think of investigations, our minds naturally think of policing. But investigations are happening everywhere.”

Clue’s users are hugely varied. While many do work in policing, others are involved in everything from protecting wildlife from illegal hunting, safeguarding athletes in sport, ensuring the quality and integrity of the food we eat, and protecting public services from fraud.

All these users are implementing Clue in incredibly important ways and leveraging the benefits of bringing all their data sources together into one secure platform, enabling them to detect trends and relationships; identify and act on early warning signs; collaborate with other organisations through interoperability; automate time-consuming processes; and utilise digitally enabled investigations to contribute to a better world.

One of the most important applications of Clue for our customers is that the platform ensures the investigative process is followed properly and, as a result, it protects cases from falling apart.

Can you tell us a bit about Clue’s background?

Clue has been present within the policing technology landscape for more than 30 years. When I joined the team in 2015, we had 17 police customers – which remain very important to us – but we weren’t yet active beyond law enforcement.

We had a decision to make, either continue to support our customers with the existing product or invest in modernising the platform and developing the next generation of Clue.

We made that decision quickly. Speaking to our customers and seeing the work they were doing with our product was inspirational – they clearly loved using Clue. However, we knew there was expanding demand for more sophisticated investigation and intelligence technology and that the opportunity wasn’t limited to the policing sector. We quickly confirmed this when users of Clue from law enforcement began entering other sectors where their investigative skills were in great demand. This included anti-corruption units within sports governing bodies, for example, where investigations play a vital role in safeguarding integrity. What we found is that these ‘original Clue users’ from policing backgrounds needed a secure platform that was simple for multiple users to access globally – they needed a new version of Clue.

We continued to develop Clue as a more versatile investigation and intelligence platform for digital investigations and, in 2016, I was joined by Thomas Drohan, Clue’s COO and co-owner. We have been on this journey together since then. Thomas managed our growth and commercial function, while I looked after our customers and product development.

Today, Clue has close to 80 customers including the likes of DEFRA, Amazon, Animal and Plant Health Agency, and Esports Integrity Commission. We have 45 employees, and our team is growing fast. Last year, we secured a sizeable growth investment, which has given us not just the resources to scale up rapidly but, also, the support of an experienced partner, fast tracking our ability to realise the huge opportunity to digitalise the world of investigations.

What’s the best thing about what you’re doing?

One of the most exciting aspects of Clue is the community we have created. What our customers do is fascinating. We’re realising that a lot of Clue’s users aren’t really buying a SaaS platform, they’re joining a community of digital investigators doing amazing work in diverse sectors across the world.

At our annual Clue User Conference, we might have an investigator from the League Against Cruel Sports sharing relevant learnings with a safeguarding officer at a top-flight sports team. As organisations and industries are held to greater standards of accountability and integrity, digital investigations are playing an important and growing role – all our users can and want to learn from one another; they want to share ideas and see how their peers are using Clue. We are in a fortunate position to be able to facilitate these conversations and help to empower them on the frontline.

“We’re realising that a lot of Clue’s users aren’t really buying a SaaS platform, they’re joining a community of investigators”

What’s also exciting is the team we are building, and the diverse backgrounds that Clue attracts by necessity. On the one hand, we have people with scaleup and tech experience, such as our Customer Success Director Rachel Evans who joined us recently from Shutterstock. But these tech backgrounds intersect with people whose experience lies in the world of investigations and intelligence, such as Clue’s Head of Sport, Phil Suddick, who has worked at the Metropolitan Police and, most recently, as Senior Intelligence Manager at the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA). These backgrounds combine to create a unique and experienced team who really understand the challenges Clue’s users are facing and can determine the best ways to solve them.

Clue has an impressive repertoire of work and has been notably growing. What’s been a standout moment or milestone in Clue’s journey?

Undoubtedly, a landmark moment for Clue was receiving growth investment from Frog Capital in the final quarter of 2021. Until last year, Clue had never raised investment choosing to grow organically.

At the point we decided to raise money in early 2021, we were at a stage where we had excellent product market fit and had grown revenue consistently, but we were ready to scale and further capture the growing demand for investigation and intelligence software. We needed support to embark on a journey as a scaleup but had to limit disruption of day-to-day operations. We also wanted to navigate the process carefully and be confident in landing a partnership with an experienced investor that could align with our vision.  

We worked closely with the Scaleup Group, who connected us with Frog Capital, a scaleup investor that understood and believed in Clue and our vision and was ready to support us in achieving the potential of digitalising investigations for a safer world.

Frog Capital’s investment has really marked ‘the end of the beginning’ for Clue. The group has provided the funding and, more importantly, the experience, knowledge and support we need to realise Clue’s potential.