Eindhoven’s SandGrain raises €1.3M for its trusted authentication solution for connected systems

Eindhoven-based SandGrain, a company that specialises in ‘Trusted Authentication,’ announced on Tuesday, April 11, that it has secured €1.3M in a Seed investment round from venture capital fund DeeptechXL.

DeepTechXL launched a €75M DeepTechXL Fund I in 2022 with partners ASML, Philips, PME Pension Fund, Invest-NL, Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM), research institute TNO, and several family offices.

“We are excited to invest in SandGrain because we see great potential in their disruptive approach to enhancing security in the fast-growing industrial Internet of Things applications. In addition, we believe that the team has the potential to play a crucial role in the deployment of circular economy concepts across various industries,” says Guus Frericks, managing partner of VC-fund DeeptechXL. 

The Dutch company says it will use the funds to accelerate its growth and product development. 

What does SandGrain solve?

The (Industrial) Internet-of-Things (IIoT) is expanding at an unprecedented rate. With the ever-increasing connectivity of systems, it is essential to ensure that the identity of any connected system is trustworthy for cybersecurity purposes. 

Trusted Authentication, the undisputed verification of identity, is crucial for this vulnerable ecosystem that currently lacks any well-established, robust standard for determining how the different parts of the network are identified. 

Authentication is a critical step that must occur before valuable data is exchanged or critical operations are commanded.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of proper authentication standards, today’s connected systems are frequently hacked, modules are illegally copied, and remain untraceable throughout their lifecycle for proper recycling. 

As a result, these connected systems suffer from unverified configurations, become unreliable, and are costly to maintain.

SandGrain: Offer integrated solution for trusted authentication

Founded by Pieter Hooijmans, SandGrain offers an integrated solution for the trusted authentication of all connected systems.

SandGrain says this is achieved through the combination of simple, immutable, unique, hard-coded ICs, together with a centralised cloud platform that guarantees and manages the IoT node identities. 

Such a solution enables system owners to verify the integral system configuration at any desired moment, which could be necessary for performing a secure download of new firmware.

Once implemented, the system owner has full control over the lifecycle status of every identified module throughout its entire lifetime up to the end-of-life for proper recyclability. 

SandGrain’s solution is broadly applicable and infinitely scalable, potentially serving billions of identities, claims the company. 

Pieter Hooijmans, SandGrain founder and CTO, says, “When one targets a solution that can be deployed globally, being infinitely scalable, while providing secure solutions, it must be designed robustly with risks minimised.” 

“With our team of industry veterans, complementing each other’s different technology domains, SandGrain is uniquely positioned to make this happen,” he adds.