Melissa Chambers

Melissa Chambers co-founded Sitehop in 2021 with Ben Harper, its chief technology officer, and is its chief executive. The Sheffield company makes hardware that encrypts data as it moves across networks, using post-quantum cryptography designed to withstand attacks from future quantum computers. Chambers is a Mississippi-born former NASA engineer, as reported by the Yorkshire Post.

Funding and a smaller device

In October 2025 Sitehop raised £7.5m in a round led by Northern Gritstone, with Amadeus Capital Partners, Manta Ray, Mercia Ventures and the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund. It followed a £5m raise in February 2024. “Sitehop is proving the critical need for future-proof encryption, demonstrated by our early customer traction globally,” Chambers said at the time.

In April 2026 the company launched SAFEcore Edge, which it describes as the world’s smallest post-quantum encryption device, built for operational technology networks in energy, utilities and critical national infrastructure. Sitehop says it delivers up to 1,000 times lower latency than software-only encryption and is being trialed by an international IT services provider. The device joins the SAFE Series, which the company says is deployed with a tier-one telecoms carrier across seven countries and with government and defense organizations.

In June the World Economic Forum named Sitehop one of 100 Technology Pioneers for 2026.

Defense networks and a US base

In August Sitehop launched a national security unit to help the UK and its Five Eyes allies protect legacy defense networks that cannot be upgraded to modern cryptographic standards. The company says its technology secures traffic at the network layer without changes to the equipment underneath. It also points to an ongoing trial with a major UK retailer to secure payment data, and says it was the first external company admitted to BT’s test facility to run a proof of concept on its network.

“Across the defence sector, legacy networks running on conventional software are vulnerable today, not just in the quantum-powered future,” Chambers said.

In September, as reported by the Yorkshire Post, Sitehop opened a US office at the Virtus Innovation Center in Arlington, Virginia, with Chambers leading the move.

Why it matters to UK buyers

The Information Commissioner’s Office has warned firms to prepare for quantum-proof encryption before 2035, as UKTN reported. For telecoms operators, banks and critical infrastructure owners, Sitehop offers a UK-designed and UK-built hardware option for protecting data in transit, including at remote sites where larger equipment is hard to install. Its trial with an international IT services provider points to a route to market through larger integrators as well as direct sales.

Chambers has turned a Sheffield hardware startup into a supplier to a multinational carrier and to government and defense buyers, and is now taking it into the US defense market.