Kaspersky announces top winners of its Open Innovation Program

Woburn, MA - October 15, 2019 - Kaspersky has chosen four tech-based startups – Enigmedia, Enigmatos, Naboo and Sedicii – for the final tour of the Kaspersky Open Innovation Program launched in May 2019. Together with these innovative projects, a globally recognized vendor will create and develop new business opportunities in the field of cybersecurity for industries of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), transportation, blockchain and anti-fraud.

As a global cybersecurity company, Kaspersky is focused on innovations and believes in the need for new ideas and solutions in these markets to combat growing threats. Earlier this year, the company launched its call to startups to submit pioneering technological proposals that prove the potential of their products or technologies to solve concrete cybersecurity issues.

Kaspersky received 258 applications in total, from 49 countries across six continents. Of those who applied, only 12 startups, including those from Israel, Spain, England, Ireland, Singapore, Germany and France, reached the final stage to present their projects to the jury of experts on a Demo Day in Milan, Italy.

Demo Day was held during the Kaspersky Open Innovation Summit – the first big event related to the Innovation Hub that focuses on finding new business growth opportunities, working with external startups and the venture ecosystem. The jury included experts from Kaspersky, as well as representatives from the venture capital firm Mangrove Capital Partners, and the premier global provider of market intelligence, International Data Corporation (IDC).

Following this process, four projects were selected as overall winners – one from each of the following areas: Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), transportation, blockchain and anti-fraud technology.

“In today’s society, it is necessary to find ready-made products and create joint solutions to achieve a synergistic effect,” said Alexander Moiseev, Chief Business Officer at Kaspersky. “As a result, we are focusedon testing many business hypotheses in the market and delivering faster and better solutions that meet customers’ cybersecurity needs. We are pleased to collaborate with innovative tech-based startups to help achieve this goal, and contribute to the development of the cybersecurity industry together.”

“We are entering the chapter of multiplied innovation where the new scale of digital platforms and pace of change dictates a new role for security,” commented Konstantin Rychkov, Research Manager at IDC. “Now we are enablers of transformation and guarantors of the digital trust that underpins business value.”

By winning the call, these four startups have the opportunity to work on joint business cases with a globally recognized cybersecurity brand. In the event of successful validation of these business cases, the startups will be able to collaborate with Kaspersky on a global scale.

“In a constantly changing world, customer needs are rapidly evolving,” commented Vitaly Mzokov, Head of Innovation Hub at Kaspersky. “Kaspersky aims to meet these growing demands by delivering innovative cybersecurity solutions and supporting growing businesses in the industry. To this end, we launched the first call to startups under the Kaspersky Open Innovation Program. A lot of work has taken place since then, and we are excited to start working with the best startups and to undertake the interesting process of joint business development.”

The Innovation Hub was established to develop and maintain the innovation management process that fosters collaboration between the company and brilliant minds – both internally and externally. It is aimed at nurturing break-through projects, and is focused on identifying new trends, discovering new markets, scouting for best-in-class startups and building technological alliances.

About Kaspersky

Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity company founded in 1997. Kaspersky’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into innovative security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialized security solutions and services to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky technologies and we help 270,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.

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Gayle Landry
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