Uniqkey Raises €5.35M to strengthen SME cybersecurity in Europe

Denmark-based Uniqkey has raised €5.35 million to scale its cybersecurity solution across Europe and make companies more resilient to cyber attacks and data theft. 

The biggest security risk Europe faces is the low security among its SMEs. 24.3 million SMEs make up 99.8 percent of all companies in Europe and the fact that 12 million SMEs (50 per cent) today don’t have a cyber security plan in place, could paralyse the European economy. 

However, serious regulations in the area are just around the corner — NIS2 and DORA — which hold directors and boards personally responsible if the companies they represent don’t have good IT security implemented. 

Just as GDPR changed the way companies process data, so NIS2 will change the way companies approach IT security. 

Today, companies underestimate the risk of cyber-attacks that can effectively wipe out their existence. Employees leave larger data traces than ever before – due to increased digitisation and due to modern working methods such as “work from anywhere”. 

This makes companies vulnerable to cyber attacks and data theft.  Uniqkey, with its military-grade cybersecurity solution, moves encrypted password protection to the individual employees, which strengthens every company against cyber attacks and data theft. 

81 per cent of data theft and cyber attacks are due to poor or careless handling of passwords. This is why employees are often the main target for hackers. Uniqkey’s solution requires a mobile app when logging into the company’s systems — like we have local ID apps across Europe when using our bank accounts (Denmark: MitID, Sweden: BankID etc). It’s easy and fast. 

All passwords are encrypted to the highest standard and practically impossible to break — and users no longer have to remember their passwords.

According to Hakan Yagci, CEO and founder of Uniqkey: 

“Today, everybody’s got a mobile phone. Mobile phones have become an essential way we access our everyday life online. 

That is exactly why we’ve made the mobile phone central to Uniqkey’s security solution, and a big part of why we’re seeing great demand for our solution. In the same fashion as mobile apps have changed the way we send money instantly or access our bank accounts, Uniqkey will change the way we access systems internally within the company – easy, fast and secure.

Today we protect 500+ SMEs across Europe and we’ve seen great demand for our cybersecurity solution, having grown 100 per cent YoY over the past two years. 

With this investment, we invest in continued growth and keep up with the latest safety standards.” 

The investment was raised from BackingMinds, in combination with industry veterans such as Jesper Zerlang (ex-CEO of Logpoint), Lars Ankjer, Otto Krabbe, Rolf Bladt, and several well-known angels and key employees. 

According to Susanne Najafi, Founding Partner at BackingMinds:

“At BackingMinds, we invest in what we call blind spots – overlooked areas with great potential.

With less than 1 per cent of all founders in cybersecurity being immigrants and with only 2 per cent of all cybersecurity startups coming from the Nordics, Uniqkey stands out as a hidden gem.”

Lead image: From Left to right): Sara Wimmercranz (founding Partner,  BackingMinds), Simon Cederstråhle Hellstrøm-Melander (CMO, Uniqkey), Hakan Yagci (founder and CEO, Uniqkey), Susanne Najafi (founding Partner,  BackingMinds). Photo: uncredited.