Livingstone secures investment for IoT security system developer ubirch

Livingstone’s Business Services sector team has advised ubirch GmbH, the developer of an IoT security system using blockchain technology, on its financing round through Breed Reply, Europe’s leading investor in early-stage IoT businesses. ubirch, based in Cologne and Berlin, has built a process that enables a continuous chain of security and confidentiality for the collection, handling, and storage of data.

The continuous chain of security begins with an extremely lightweight blockchain client that can be operated on any IoT sensor, even running on batteries. Each sensor that runs the protocol has a private key that generates a digital signature for every measurement that is being transmitted. It means both the identity and integrity of the IoT data can be verified by anyone on the receiver side. Critical data is anchored in a two-layered blockchain architecture.

The ubirch solution, which is hardware agnostic, enables a wide range of IoT applications for infrastructures, buildings, machines, and devices with clients in the insurance, telecoms and manufacturing industries. Gartner, the leading IT market research and consulting named ubirch as one of the “Cool Vendors for Insurance” in 2017.

Emanuele Angelidis, CEO of Breed Reply, said: “The ability to secure IoT data is vital to ensure the success and widespread adoption of IoT technology. ubirch uses blockchain to provide notary-level trustworthiness for the Things, that are part of IoT, and the data they exchange. It is an innovative approach, which we believe there is a significant market for around the world. We look forward to working closely with ubirch team to support the roll-out of its technology.”

Stephan Noller, CEO, ubirch commented: “Trust is the number one problem for IoT businesses today. The issue is holding back the implementation of IoT technologies in many industries. ubirch offers the strongest security architecture using public and private key cryptography and blockchain technology. We have already seen strong interest from a number of leading multi-national corporations, and the support of Breed Reply will help us increase the take-up our technology.”

Dr. Ralf Nowak, Partner at Livingstone, said: “ubirch combines a strong management team with an innovative technology that solves a real-world problem. As well as funding, Breed Reply will work closely with management to support the company’s development to rapidly reach the next stage of development. We are pleased to have been able to support ubirch on this transaction.”