A former senior officer with Merseyside Police has raised funding from Silicon Valley venture-capital firms for a start-up valued at nearly $400 million (£300m) that is developing AI tools for law enforcement, the reported.

Steven Richardson served as detective chief superintendent in Merseyside Police until 2021, after which he served as UK policing lead at Amazon Web Services, and then co-founded and sold Riven, an AI document redaction and data-scanning tool used by UK police forces, the report said.

The new start-up, called 22one, was incorporated last December, according to UK corporate filings.

Police tech

The report said it has raised funding from Sequoia, General Catalyst, Lux Capital and Creandum.

It is currently in stealth mode, with a public presence limited to a website that only displays the flashing word INVESTIGATE.

People familiar with the venture told the that it would focus on providing AI tools for law-enforcement that aim to increase forces’ efficiency.

The development comes at a time when the government is pushing police forces to incorporate AI tools to increase time efficiency.

In June the government founded PoliceAI, aimed at developing, piloting and scaling such tools.

Interest has grown in the use of domestic alternatives to US-based companies such as Palantir, which has a number of contracts across the public sector, including in the NHS.

The Eastern Region special operations unit, which covers five forces in the East Midlands, terminated a pilot project with Palantir, while London mayor Sadiq Khan in June barred the London Metropolitan Police from implementing a proposed £50m contract with the company.

Palantir initially sued the Mayor’s office over the blocked deal, but earlier this month dropped the legal action after Khan’s office agreed to clarify that the decision wasn’t based on Palantir’s “values or ethics”.