Estonian startup DigiFlak in now part of the EIT Digital Accelerator with the aim of getting access to market and finance to help them grow at a global level. They are developing the Flak Secuter, an all-in-one device that secures data computer-held data against damaging breaches by securing mobile workers’ digital keys, passwords and certificates in a safe, separate hardware environment.
Founded in 2013, DigiFlak helps companies manage and protect their digital identities and information with a personal hardware-software solution. The company was the winner of the Cyber Security & Privacy category of the 2015 EIT Digital Challenge, being the first Estonian company ever to take the top prize in this competition. Now the are the first Estonian startup to join the EIT Digital Accelerator scaleup program.
“We came up with the idea of Flak Secuters back in 2005. But, due to the lack of specific hardware on the market, we were only able to do some initial basic experiments on professional, non-dedicated and quite expensive equipment. Today, the situation has changed with dedicated, affordable chip hardware now available, alongside new technologies,” says Maxim Kostin, the founder and CEO of DigiFlak.
DigiFlak will be part of EIT Digital’s Digital Infrastructure Action Line, focused on enabling digital transformation by providing secure, robust, responsive and intelligent communications and computation facilities for markets.
The EIT Digital Accelerator has a team of business developers and finance experts operating from Europe as well as a hub in San Francisco, that has helped since 2012 more than 200 startups to access new markets and raise more than €77 million in investment.
As an Estonian company, DigiFlak is getting support via ARISE Europe, EIT Digital’s implementation of the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS).
ARISE Europe is focused on stimulating regional growth in EU countries where EIT Digital does not have a presence with with one of its Node or Associate Partners. Its objective is to connect local and regional innovation centres and their ecosystems to EIT Digital’s innovation and education ecosystem. The ARISE programme now includes innovation centres from Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia.