Our Story
Meet the Management Team
Shelley Langan-Newton
Tech founder. Cyber CEO. Identity innovator. With an expansive background in telecoms…
Shelley Langan-Newton
Tech founder. Cyber CEO. Identity innovator. With an expansive background in telecoms, from building a mobile network operator from scratch to co-founding an internet exchange, she is now on a mission to make the world a safer place through efficient and inclusive identity infrastructure. Under her leadership, SQR has scaled rapidly from servicing SMEs to delivering for governments, securing major investment, and assembling a world-class team to tackle one of society’s most urgent challenges.
Jonathan Bayly
Jonathan Bayly
With over 30 years of experience in finance and a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland, Jonathan brings a wealth of knowledge to the role, having held positions as a finance director and occasional CEO. Jonathan is also an experienced high-tech investor, offering valuable insights to tech startups. His expertise and strategic mindset contribute significantly to SQR’s growth ambitions as their CFO.
Chief Commercial Officer (CCO)
Isabella Eckert
Chief Commercial Officer (CCO)
Isabella Eckert
Isabella brings over 10 years of expertise in scaling start-ups and driving growth. At AIM-listed Equals Group, she spearheaded major growth initiatives such as the B2B Equals product launch and the company’s entry into the US market. Previously, she boosted monthly readership by 10 million at a VC-backed digital media startup. Having come from a payments background, Bella understands the pitfalls of slow, onerous onboarding, and the risk of fraud.
Chief Technology and Security Officer (CTO)
Mark Rodman
Chief Technology and Security Officer (CTO)
Mark Rodman
With over 25 years of experience in IT and cybersecurity, Mark is a seasoned expert in Information Security. Most recently, he served as Head of Operational Security at Bumble, where he specialised in building and designing blue teams to proactively defend against cyber threats. Driven by a passion for leveraging data to tackle security challenges, Mark plays a pivotal role in shaping SQR’s technology and security strategy.
How did We Get Here?
At SQR, our mission is to make the world a safer place through secure and efficient identity verification. We believe it starts with not only knowing, but trusting who you are dealing with, and always with a person’s consent.
SQR enables individuals to efficiently prove and control their identity, whilst allowing organisations to stay safeguarded and compliant.
Security, efficiency, and inclusivity are at the centre of everything we do.
Our solution, comes from our team’s decades of expertise to combat cybercrime and improve governance in the telecoms, regulated industry, and e-gaming sectors. This experience has driven the development of our reusable digital identity verification and eKYC Compliance Dashboard.
With a balance of continuous innovation, collaboration and hitting standards, we have cemented SQR as the trusted partner for businesses looking to create efficiencies and security in their governance, compliance and security posture.
Our reusable ID solution, uniquely embeds verified facial biometrics in a SQR ID and combines this with other trusted data sources, which provides high confidence identity verification throughout the entire client lifecycle. Helping mitigate identity fraud, addressing rising threats from deepfake and voice cloning technologies.
We are making it easier for everyone to prove they are who they say they are, both online and in person, without risking their personal information.
Our Journey
SQR officially launched our reusable Digital ID and eKYC Compliance Dashboard late in the summer of 2023, shortly after gaining our UK Government “Trust Framework” (DIATF) accreditation.
An Award-Winning Launch
Shortly after, in August 2023, we were one of only six pioneering start-ups selected for the Cyber Runway program, backed by the UK Government Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). Delivered by Plexal, Cyber Runway is the UK’s largest cyber accelerator, designed to tackle the biggest challenges in cybersecurity. Our recognition as a leading early-stage innovator showed its promise in the sector and set the tone for an exciting 2024 and beyond.
Additional recognition has come our way in 2023, where we were selected as finalist for:
- KPMG’s hotly contested “Tech Innovators” North West
- “Pitch” at Regulating the Game, London
- SBC Barcelona Gaming Innovation of the Year
- IOM Awards for Excellence, Innovation of the Year
Seeing SQR recognised on the Digital Leaders 100 in 2023 as the next trailblazers of the Digital Industry in the UK and Isle of Man was a significant accolade, reflecting our team’s unwavering commitment to our mission.
Our Community
Partnered with Sight Matters
We’ve also partnered with Sight Matters, a charity supporting over 500 individuals with severe sight loss on the Isle of Man, to launch a pilot scheme aimed at identifying real-life pain points and critical usability issues. This collaboration allowed us to design a more targeted, effective, and meaningful digital accessibility solution. By focusing on practical, real-world challenges, rather than just the broad concept of accessibility, SQR exemplifies how a user-centred approach can create more inclusive, efficient, and empowering digital experiences for all.
What’s Next?
Looking to the future, we will continue to innovate, focusing on developing advanced solutions that enable seamless verification both in-person and online through a single App. Our goal is to create high-assurance, trusted identity verification solutions that serve the entire client lifecycle, from onboarding to transaction authentication, compliance checkpoints, and high-value instructions. By staying ahead of threats like deepfake and voice cloning technologies, we aim to lock in safety and lock out fraud.
As we expand our capabilities, we remain dedicated to safeguarding identities and building a more secure, trustworthy digital world for everyone.
