Vaultree CEO Ryan Lasmaili and COO Tilo Weigandt. Image: Vaultree
A recent Start-up of the Week, Vaultree is the only Irish start-up on the WEF list of 100 global companies.
Cork cybersecurity start-up Vaultree has made it into this year’s list of World Economic Forum (WEF) Technology Pioneers, joining a prestigious community of past listees including Airbnb, Kickstarter, Google and Twitter.
Announced today (21 June), the WEF Technology Pioneers consist of 100 promising global start-ups that are “forging new paths” in a range of industries, from healthcare to renewable energy.
A total of 31 countries are represented in the cohort, and a third of the start-ups in the list have women as chief executives. Unsurprisingly, the US has the highest representation of any country with 29 entries, followed by China at 12.
There are a total of 19 start-ups based in Europe, with the UK having the highest representation at six companies. Vaultree is the only start-up based in Ireland represented on the list.
Founded on a dairy farm in 2020 by Ryan Lasmaili, Tilo Weigandt, Shaun McBrearty and Maxim Dressler, Vaultree – a former Start-up of the Week – is developing a software development kit that enables organisations of any type to benefit from fully functional data-in-use encryption.
This means that Vaultree software, a result of “major cryptographic breakthroughs” according to CEO Lasmaili, allows the processing of fully encrypted data without server-side decryption and without complex intermediaries or noticeable delays in data processing – a feat that he says has been “unparalleled” up to now.
“Now companies can forget about security versus performance issues and keep their data safe all the time, sticking to their tech stack and database, maintaining their code and SQL syntax, going with the flow and working the way they have always worked … but fully encrypted, and all at scale!” he told SiliconRepublic.com in April.
Soon after it was established, the start-up raised seed funding of $3.3m in November 2021. Then in December 2022, it announced the close of a $12.8m Series A funding round led by Molten Ventures.
The high-potential cybersecurity start-up was also selected for the European Innovation Council accelerator following a “highly competitive” selection process that saw more than 1,000 companies apply and only 78 make the cut.
Lasmaili said that being named a WEF Technology Pioneer is an honour that brings with it “a deep sense of gratitude and humility”.
“We are not just a tech company; we are a force for change. Our recognition is not just about our groundbreaking innovation in cybersecurity but also about the potential our technology has to reshape the world.”
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