Emproof, an Eindhoven- and Bochum-based company that provides security solutions for embedded systems, announced on Tuesday that it has secured €2M in a Seed round of funding. The raised capital will help the company to further develop its product range and serve customers in Europe and the US.
This round was led by the Dutch investment group TIIN Capital through its Dutch Security TechFund. High-Tech Grunderfonds from Germany and the French venture capitalist Cyber Impact, a firm with cooperation between three European investors, also participated in the round
What does Emproof offer?
Emproof was founded by Philipp Koppe, Marc Fyrbiak and Benjamin Kollenda in 2017 at the Horst-Görtz Institute for IT-Sicherheit (HGI) in Bochum, Germany. Prior to Emproof, the founders worked together on academic projects focusing on advanced reverse engineering and advanced security analyses, for instance, reverse engineering of the microcode of AMD x86 CPUs.
They founded Emproof to apply their knowledge of software security, reverse engineering and obfuscation to create effective protection for embedded systems.
Emproof has developed a technology which protects resource-constrained IoT and embedded devices against cyber threats and IP theft.
According to a statement from Emproof, most embedded and Industrial IoT devices have limited memory and processing power due to economic pressure to reduce manufacturing costs, which leaves little room for adding security overhead. Thus, existing firmware hardening techniques are inadequate, leaving these devices vulnerable to hackers.
Consequently, it is simple to hack huge numbers of embedded devices, utilise them as botnets, mine cryptocurrencies, gain access to back-end systems, or simply extract and reverse-engineer the trade secrets or intellectual property the OEM has invested millions of dollars in creating. This results in reduced competitive advantage, decreased R&D investment returns, product liability lawsuits, and a damaged reputation.
This is where Emproof steps in. To address these problems, the company has created its NYX software suite that prevents reverse engineering and firmware tampering for Arm and Intel Corporation architectures with RISC-V International support coming shortly. In any firmware development process, integration as a post-compiler step enables rapid and easy client onboarding. It is also beneficial to have the option to “retrofit” security onto field equipment using an over-the-air update.
Over the next 12 months, the team will focus on roadmap features and Functional Safety certification to meet requirements in key markets such as aerospace, automotive and medical appliances.
About the investors
TIIN Capital was founded in 1998, and started with its sixth venture capital fund in 2019 – one of them being Dutch Security TechFund. This fund is sector-focused and backs startups and scale-ups in cybersecurity and IoT Security. The firm works together with Security Delta in The Hague, the Netherlands, and the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO) in Brussels, Belgium.
Launched in 2021, Cyber Impact Ventures is a French Seed investment fund that is dedicated to cyber startups. The firm was Initiated by cyber entrepreneurs and operated by Auriga Partners, a management company that has been pioneering VC in France. It leverages a network of more than 70 cyber specialists to deliver high-value support to its portfolio. With a target size of €60M, the fund is focused on French and European startups and aims at supporting the emergence of future European cybersecurity champions.
High-Tech Grunderfonds (HTGF) is a Seed investor that finances high-potential and tech-driven startups. With nearly €900M in total investment volume across three funds and an international network of partners, HTGF has already backed more than 650 startups since 2005. The firm’s focus is on high-tech startups in the fields of digital tech, industrial technology, life sciences, chemistry, and related business areas.
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