AN ABINGDON company that hunts down and destroys computer viruses has attracted a £2.5m cash injection from top venture capitalists 3i.

Sophos, founded in 1986, is now one of the world's five leading independent suppliers of corporate anti-virus software, working in a global market worth about £350m a year.

Now the firm's two founding investors, Sir Martin Wood and Oxford Seedcorn Capital, are realising some of their shares and the Thames Valley office of 3i is pumping in money.

Sophos says that the number of viruses infecting systems is increasing at the rate of 400 per month.

This is due partly to increasingly powerful desktop computers which make it progressively easier to write software, and partly to personal computer usage - now growing at 20 per cent a year.

Sophos has a 25 per cent share of the UK corporate market with key export markets in USA and Germany where the firm has now set up subsidiaries. It also has distribution offices in Japan and France and is in addition represented by 30 distributor companies worldwide.

Co-founder of Sophos Peter Lammer said: "We are proud to win the 1996 3i Quest for Growth competition and are delighted that 3i, with whom we have remained in close contact since, have decided to come on board."

Director of 3i, Ian Lobley, said: "The company has enormous potential to go even further in this market."

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