RAMLA, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--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