Embedded Security Startup Emproof Secures € 2 Million Seed Funding from European Investors
Emproof B.V. successfully closed an € 2 million seed funding round, which enables the company to further develop its product range and serve customers in Europe and the USA. This funding round is led by the Dutch investment group TIIN Capital through its Dutch Security TechFund, alongside High-Tech Gründerfonds from Germany and the French venture capitalist Cyber Impact resulting in a cooperation between three European investors which are able to give support to future European cybersecurity champions. Emproof has developed a unique technology which protects resource constrained (i)IoT and embedded devices against cyber threats and IP theft. Reduced overhead and straightforward integration in customers’ firmware development processes allow Emproof’s NYX suite to make a real difference for OEMs with vulnerable IoT devices in multiple sectors.
The economic drive to lower manufacturing costs results in most embedded and Industrial IoT devices having minimal memory and computing power meaning that there is little room to add security overhead. Existing firmware hardening solutions are therefore not suitable and these devices are left unprotected against attackers. As a result, embedded systems can be easily hacked in large numbers and used as botnets, for crypto mining, as an entry point into back-end systems or simply to extract and reverse-engineer the intellectual property or trade secrets the OEM has spent millions developing. The result: reduced competitive advantage, lower returns on investment in R&D, product liability claims and a damaged reputation.
To address these problems, Emproof 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. Integration as a post-compiler step in any firmware development pipeline makes customer onboarding quick and frictionless. The ability to ‘retrofit’ security to field devices via an over-the-air update is extremely valuable too.
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 or medical appliances.
Click here to read this press release in Dutch.