It's a UK high-tech start-up and it's off to the States

UK anti-virus company MessageLabs opened offices in the US yesterday.

The company has a 14-strong team in Minneapolis and hopes to conquer the US market with its offering of outsourced services for corporate customers.

Jos White, marketing manager at Messagelabs, told silicon.com the company is not afraid of the current stormy market conditions across the Atlantic. He said: "We received $40m funding last year to continue with our expansion plans. The US is the core market for us as it has the most business email users in the world and we are determined to go ahead with the launch."

The plucky Gloucester-based company grew out of ISP Star Internet and has only been in operation since January 2000. It has 70 staff and claims to have never let a single virus go past its scanners. The company promises its customers a full refund should any viruses get thorough its email protection system.

The company provides an email filtering system for customers such as the Bank of England, Vodafone and 3i. It passes the corporate emails through MessageLabs servers, which are equipped with virus scanners from McAfee, Vfind and Fsecure as well as its own knowledge-based Skeptic.