GuardKnox,
a world-leading automotive cyber security company, today announced the
completion of its $21 Million Series A round of funding, bringing its
total raised to $24 million. The round was led by Fraser
McCombs Capital with participation from global investors including automotive
technology leader Faurecia, SAIC
Capital (Shanghai Automotive), Glory
Ventures, NextLeap
Ventures, VectoIQ,
Plug
and Play, Allied,
Cyphertech, and Kardan
LTD.
A group of strategic industry leaders also participated as private
investors: Dr.
Jürgen Hambrecht, Dr.
Paul Achleitner, Robert
Taub, Michael
Diekmann, Prof.
Dr. h.c. Roland Berger, Peter
Loescher, Gerhard
Roiss, Dr.
Kurt Lauk, and Stefan Hambrecht. The funding will be allocated to
expand GuardKnox’s R&D team in order to meet the growing needs of its
customers. The company will also distribute funding to support its
global expansion, opening subsidiaries in strategic locations. These
initiatives will enable GuardKnox to achieve its aim of eliminating
risks of cyber security threats from connected and autonomous vehicles
worldwide through its innovative next-level solutions.
GuardKnox, founded in 2016 by Israel Air Force Veterans Moshe Shlisel
(CEO), Dionis Teshler (CTO), and Idan Nadav (VP R&D), provides a
patented and complete automotive cybersecurity product. This includes
comprehensive end-to-end solutions combining software and hardware to
deliver optimized, cybersecure, high-performance computing platforms and
added services to the automotive industry. The company’s solutions
prevent cyber security attacks in real time, with zero false positives,
minimal maintenance efforts, and no constant connectivity requirements.
The company adapted methodologies used to defend fighter jets from cyber
attacks and applied them to vehicle security to ensure there is no room
for vulnerability.
GuardKnox pioneered the approach of using a deterministic model of
cybersecurity protection, a zero-trust method allowing no margin for
unexpected communication by passing all messages entering vehicles’
networks through routing, content and contextual layers. Messages
received by the GuardKnox system that are not precisely designated as
acceptable are immediately rejected.
“The automotive industry is experiencing massive disruption from
emerging technologies,” says Moshe Shlisel, CEO and Co-Founder of
GuardKnox. “Paired with increasing customer expectations, companies are
under immense pressure to meet client needs and desires for added
services, while also providing security solutions that keep pace with
passenger safety and data security as well as the ever-changing
regulatory environment. We are solving a critical industry pain point
and believe our approach to high-performance hardware architecture and
secured ECU’s is the best way for companies to ensure the safety of
their connected and autonomous vehicles. We are proud to have such
outstanding investors support our vision, and are confident they will
bring immense value to the company.”
The big challenge with automotive security is in orchestrating internal
and external network connectivity in the most secure manner possible in
order to ensure the safety of the vehicle as a whole and prevent vehicle
hacking or tampering. The GuardKnox cybersecurity solution functions
as a building block for added connectivity, services and
personalization, creating an improved end-user experience and
revenue-generating opportunities for manufacturers.
“With connected services available in a majority of new cars and trucks,
the ability to secure vehicles and user information will soon redefine
automotive brands and insurance,” said Mark Norman, Managing Partner for
Fraser McCombs Capital. “FM Capital is proud to partner with the dynamic
GuardKnox team delivering transformative cyber security solutions for
the auto industry.”
For more information, visit www.GuardKnox.com.
About GuardKnox Cyber Technologies
GuardKnox is a leading automotive cyber-solutions company providing
comprehensive cyber defense for connected and autonomous vehicles. The
GuardKnox team brings decades of experience providing similar cyber
security solutions to Israeli Air Force systems including Iron Dome,
Arrow and F-35 fighter jets. GuardKnox’s patented Communication
Lockdown™ methodology is completely revolutionary in its approach. The
deterministic hardware and software solution — the SNO, or Secure
Network Orchestrator — is completely autonomous, does not require
constant online connectivity and can defend against both known and
unknown attacks. The GuardKnox solution family provides in-depth
security with a central gateway ECU drop-in SNO, a secured domain
controller and a local SNO for externally connected ECU’s. GuardKnox’s
patented Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) enables customization of
the vehicle and secured high performance on-board data storage and
processing for automotive manufacturers. SOA allows unified
communication as well as access control and service level partitioning.
The GuardKnox cybersecurity solution family is the foundational layer
for added connectivity, services and personalization – creating an
improved end-user experience and revenue generating opportunities for
manufacturers. Contact us at info@guardknox.com
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