Atsign

Keeping Your Data Private and Secure

Company Information

Website:

https://atsign.com

Sector:

Security Services

Location:

San Jose, CA

Atsign aims to keep your data private and secure.

This award-winning technology company has created an open-source platform that enables internet-connected device manufacturers and organizations to secure devices.

Right now, the internet is broken. Devices and companies are constantly being hacked. Consumer data is being collected and used for manipulation and profit. And traditional solutions that add layer upon layer of inconvenience in an attempt to protect data don’t work.

This is a massive, fast-growing problem. By 2025, there will be more than 41 billion internet-connected devices, often referred to collectively as the internet of things (IoT).

In the first half of 2021, there were one-and-a-half billion attacks detected against IoT devices. And in the first half of 2022, there was a seventy-seven percent increase in the number of cyber attacks on these devices.

Security is a problem, but so is privacy. People value their privacy online, but very few do anything about it.

Seventy-four percent of people rank data privacy as a top value, yet a whopping thirteen percent have done nothing to protect their privacy. Of those that have, sixty percent simply changed their password.

Part of the problem is that nobody knows how to protect themselves. But it’s been shown that given the option, people do take action. For example, seventy-five percent of users opted out of sharing their data with apps when Apple launched its App Tracking Transparency feature.

Atsign believes it can make a difference in this area by delivering simple, yet comprehensive security and privacy for all. Here’s how:

Makes IoT Devices Invisible — Until now, IoT devices have required static IP addresses so administrators can configure administrative access to update and repair them. These fixed addresses are a security weakness. Atsign technology provides full remote access to devices using private, dynamic IPs.

Makes IoT Devices Impenetrable — IoT devices typically have open ports to receive inbound communications. These “doors” are targets that hackers like to exploit. Atsign technology allows for authorized parties to access a device without open ports, eliminating this vulnerability.

Makes IoT Data Unreadable — Often, data is stolen from the system a device is connected to. Atsign technology encrypts data in a way that’s only readable by an authorized recipient; even if a bad actor accesses the data, they can’t read it and it’s worthless to them.

Additionally, Atsign offers a privacy solution that makes it easy for developers and organizations to create cross-platform apps. These apps offer data privacy and data control.

All of these features are presented in the company’s open-source platform called atPlatform. This technology has six components:

atProtocol — An open network that provides for the secure exchange of information between known parties.

atSign — Unique addresses for IoT devices, people, and companies used by the atProtocol.

atServer — A small, private datastore on the Cloud for each atSign that stores private, encrypted data.

atDirectory — A service that stores the location of each atServer for each atSign.

atClient — An open-source software development kit that enables developers to quickly build custom apps and connect devices.

atWidgets — Open-source application components to help developers speed up the development of atPlatform apps.

To get an idea of Atsign’s potential impact, consider two case studies:

A medical company uses predictive algorithms to identify critical instability in patients via connected medical devices. Device connectivity setup was a long, laborious process because they had to assign static IP addresses to each remote device and manage the hospital’s firewalls.

This company’s atPlatform solution reduced implementation time to a matter of days (vs. nine months). And its devices and internal systems are virtually invisible to any bad actors. Furthermore, all data is secure.

Meanwhile, a telecommunications company was asked to provide solar-powered WiFi connectivity throughout a college campus. The WiFi access points needed firewalls to secure them and protect people’s data. But these security layers added a variety of costs.

Atsign’s atPlatform-powered solution encrypted data from end-to-end, eliminating the need for these layers.

Atsign has generated minimal revenue to-date. It collects upfront and recurring revenue from IoT manufacturers, monetizing both its atSign and atServer components.

The company has thirty-eight pending patent claims covering its technology and partnerships with top names in the IoT sector including Google Cloud, Zariot, Kigen, and Thistle Technologies. It was awarded the 2022 IoT Security Champion of the Year by the IoT Security Foundation.

Team Background

Barbara Tallent - Co-Founder & CEO

Barbara has more than twenty-five years of experience in technical and marketing roles.

Prior to starting Atsign, she co-founded LiveBinders, an educational-software company with more than one million users. Before that, she was CEO of BoldFish, a software company acquired by Siebel Systems.

Earlier in her career, she was Vice President of Marketing with Netmosphere, a project-management company. Prior to that, she spent six years with Network Computing Devices, a software company acquired by Netmanage.

Colin Constable - Co-Founder & CTO

Colin began his career in the telecommunications sector, working for UK-based BT Group, a communications company. He then switched to investment banking, working as Head of Network Technology and later Chief Network Architect for Credit Suisse, an investment bank.

From there, he spent six years with Juniper Networks, a software-development company, working as Chief Enterprise Architect. After that, he was asked to lead an innovation lab startup in California for investment bank Deutsche Bank.

Colin studied telecommunications engineering at Croydon College.

Kevin Nickels - Co-Founder & CPO

Kevin has a background in technical and product marketing. In addition to his role with Atsign, he is Managing Director of Nickels Financial Corp., a company helping startups accelerate their ideas.

Previously he was CEO of FatFractal, a software-development company. Prior to that, he was Chief Product Officer with KnuEdge, an IT services company.

Earlier in his career, he worked with Colin at the Deutsche Bank Labs startup in Palo Alto, California. He also spent time as a research engineer with Tek Labs, an electronics-manufacturing company, and CEO of Netmosphere, a software company that was acquired.

Co-Investors

Raising
$1.24 million
Committed
$143.301K (12%)
Current Valuation
$35 million Cap / 20% Discount
Min. Investment
$150
Deal Type
Title III
(For all investors)
Offering Type
SAFE
Finance History
Notable Investors
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