Start-up nabs million dollar cyber-security prize

Israeli cyber-security firm Titanium Core is the winner of the biggest start-up prize ever given out in Israel — $1 million, courtesy of venture capital fund Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP). Titanium Core will receive the investment as well as space in the new JVP Cyber Labs incubator based in the growing cyber epicenter in Beersheeba, adjacent to Ben-Gurion University.

Titanium Core, which has developed methods to stop hackers in their tracks before they can get access to servers hosting mission-critical services (power, communication, etc.), is the early-stage start-up winner of the Cybertition contest, for best new cyber-security product.

The award was announced Tuesday night in San Francisco, during the annual RSA Security Conference, which since 1991 has brought together top security and cyber-defense professionals to discuss, among other things, the previous year’s cyber-news — who got hacked and why — and how to avoid future attacks. Dozens of companies from around the world presented their cyber-technology, with executives from top multi-nationals checking out the technology for application security, network hardening, mobile security, cloud and data security, trends in the hacking world, and much more.

Titanium Core utilizes a multilayered security approach to repel attacks on mission-critical systems, provide real-time attack information and prevent threats from moving onto other computer systems, said Dudu Mimram, company founder and former chief technology officer of Deutsche Telekom Labs in Israel. “This funding, along with the guidance of the Cyber Labs incubator, will allow us to bring our vision to market and ensure that this technology can be used to protect the world’s critical IT assets,” he said.

The contest began in January, at the big Cybertech 2014 show in Tel Aviv. Thirty five start-ups responded to the challenge posed by JVP — to develop a breakthrough concept or product that could solve a cyber-security problem in a well-defined market. Besides technology, start-ups were judged on the basis of the feasibility of their idea, their business plan, and the potential market for their product or service.

Cyber-security is one of the main specialties of JVP, which has funded numerous start-ups that went on to become successful in the field, such as CyberArk, Navajo (acquired by SalesForce), Magnifire (acquired by F5 Networks), ThetaRay and NativeFlow. Israel has seen over $2 billion worth of M&A activity in the cyber-security sector recently, led by acquisitions from 18 major multinational corporations.

Co-founding the company with Mimram was Prof. Yuval Elovici, director of Telekom Innovation Laboratories at Ben-Gurion University, and one of Israel’s top cyber-security experts. Among Elovici’s previous accomplishments was an app that allows a parent to review their children’s Facebook friends and determine within seconds if they are real or fake — an indication that the owner of the profile is up to no good. The app analyzes a user’s friends and scores their “connectedness,” on the theory that the more connected a user is — the more posts, friends, likes, etc. — the more likely that they are who they say they are.

“The Cybertition is about finding early stage start-ups with a clear, unique, innovative, groundbreaking technology aimed at addressing the real needs in the market. It gives us a unique opportunity to fast track a truly innovative concept and bring it to market,” said Yoav Tzruya, Partner at the JVP Cyber Labs. “Titanium has the potential to revolutionize how we defend against cyber threats on mission-critical systems, and we look forward to helping this amazing team achieve this crucial goal,” he added.