Bloc Ventures is a UK based venture capital investor specialising in European deep technology. Bloc’s vision is to grow the next generation of European technology businesses at the forefront of telecommunications and computing. The Bloc team has a complementary mix of technology, commercial and finance expertise developed over the last 30 years in careers in technology, including corporate ventures and M&A at Vodafone and Arm. The team applies their operational experience to provide a hands-on collaborative approach to rapidly scale portfolio companies. www.blocventures.com
NextLeap Ventures was founded in 2017 to invest in early-stage Israeli startups with deep technologies that will solve major global challenges. It leverages the community of Intel, the largest private employer and incubator of the tech ecosystem in Israel, to source, vet, and support its portfolio. NextLeap Ventures’ partners are split between Israel and the US. The expertise of the team spans investments, strategy, technology, innovation, marketing, product management, IP and finance, with a track record of driving and scaling major technology innovation. www.nextleapventures.com
Shield-IoT is an IoT cyber security and analytics software solution provider. Shield-IoT enables service providers and IoT brands to monitor and secure mass-scale B2B IoT/IIoT networks, reduce operational costs and generate new revenue streams. Based on proprietary, patented Coreset-AI technology, Shield-IoT solutions protect any IoT device or application, and are in use across multiple domains including telcos, Industry 4.0, transportation, grids, cities and government. www.shieldiot.io
Tel Aviv, Israel November 22nd, 2021— Shield-IoT, a leader in mass-scale IoT and IIoT network cyber security and operational monitoring, announced today the closing of a $7.4 million Series A round of funding. The Series A round was led by NextLeap Ventures and Bloc Ventures, with participation of Atlas Ventures, Akamai Technologies, Springtide Ventures, DIVEdigital and Janvest Capital Partners.
Founded in 2017, Shield-IoT addresses the escalating proliferation of IoT cyber threats to devices, data, critical services and infrastructure. With Shield-IoT, service providers and IoT brands can monitor and secure their mass-scale B2B IoT and IIoT networks, reduce operational costs, and generate new revenue streams with value-added services.
“Shield-IoT’s innovative approach to anomaly detection enables Akamai to provide accurate analytics at mass-scale,” says Ramanath Mallikarjuna, Chief Strategist at Akamai Technologies. “Akamai is collaborating with Shield-IoT on innovative solutions to enhance cybersecurity and operational monitoring for customers of Akamai’s IoT solutions.”
Currently in use across multiple verticals including telcos, utilities, transportation, manufacturing, smart cities, and government, Shield-IoT offers a simple-to-deploy and easy- to-operate cloud-based software solution to protect any IoT device or application with no changes to end customer networks.
Based on over 15 years of academic research and 50 academic papers, Shield-IoT coreset-AI patented technology revolutionizes IoT mass-volume data analysis through a unique transformation of “big data” into small datasets. “Coresets compress the data from n to log(n), or from 1 million to 20 data points, enabling context-free highly accurate anomaly detection in minutes instead of hours or days” says Professor Dan Feldman, Chief Scientist at Shield-IoT.
“Shield-IoT removes the big data barriers and opens the door to a $50 billion IoT connectivity services market (2025)”, says Udi Solomon, CEO and Co-Founder of Shield-IoT. “Our innovative technology is helping global IoT players to move forward and accelerate IoT growth”.