Cybersecurity

Keyless is a deep tech, cybersecurity company that is currently building the world's first privacy-enhancing biometric authentication and personal identity management platform.

Keyless’ biometric multi-factor authentication solution offers unmatched security, privacy and usability. As such, Keyless enables enterprises to provide a frictionless multichannel authentication experience to users and employees, while simultaneously improving security posture and compliance with privacy regulations.

A Team of Passionate and Experienced Cybersecurity Leaders

Co-founders Andrea and Fabian met at INSEAD in 2018, during which they conceived the idea for a biometric authentication solution that harnessed the powers of distributed technology to end cyber threats.

The pair pitched their idea to Professor Giuseppe Ateniese, a world-renowned privacy and security expert, who agreed to come on board as a co-founder along with Professor Paolo Gasti, a former student of his. Paolo had worked at the intersection of biometrics and cryptography for the past 10 years and now serves as CTO of Keyless.

Their team is now more than 30 people strong, with decades of collective experience in building products for national security and regulated sectors. Together the team has successfully developed patent-pending, GDPR compliant biometric solutions for both workforce and consumer authentication, that are now live on the market.

On a Mission to offer Innovative Solutions

Andrea, Keyless co-founder and chief executive officer, asserts that the ways in which we prove who we are online are fundamentally broken. He explains that compromised and weak credentials account for the vast majority of hacks and large-scale data breaches in the US and worldwide.

He says Keyless helps companies tackle these threats and reduce compliance costs by making passwords entirely obsolete.

To do this, Keyless leverages Zero-Knowledge Biometrics (ZKB™) to provide seamless, passwordless multi-factor authentication that eliminates fraud, phishing, and credential reuse, all while enhancing customer and employee experiences and protecting their privacy.

Leveraging Technologies for Customer-Centric Solutions

By combining biometrics, zero-knowledge cryptography, and secure multi-party computation technologies, Keyless enables users to control and seamlessly manage their authentication credentials.

The Keyless platform's private-by-design architecture allows users to combine credentials for flexible and user-friendly authentication. By linking users' devices to their identity, utilizing various biometric modalities and behavioral analyses, Keyless provides a multi-factor authentication solution by design, meaning users no longer have to consciously complete multiple challenges to login to their accounts.

Partnerships Driving Market Success

To drive innovation in the Italian education sector, which faced severe disruptions due to COVID-19 lockdowns, Keyless partnered with Cisco and Luiss Guido Carli University. The partnership accelerated the university's digital transformation strategy by allowing students and teachers to seamlessly access virtual exams from their homes via their unique biometrics. By using Keyless to access Cisco's video conferencing platform, students were able to progress with their courses without delay. This is in stark contrast to other countries like Singapore, where video conferencing was banned due to a sharp increase in "zoom-bombing" threats and account hacks.

This marks the first commercial contract for Keyless, within a sector that will need more secure and reliable authentication to support the 'next normal' in education. Alongside that, the company has multiple pilots with large enterprises and renowned institutions in the pipeline to start in the next few weeks.

To accelerate its go-to-market strategy, Keyless has also formed strong partnerships with numerous system integrators that are proactively helping the company accelerate sales and strengthen the implementation capabilities across the financial services and healthcare sectors.

Growing Beyond Significant Challenges

As a global cybersecurity firm with offices headquartered in London, Rome, and Singapore, Keyless has had to overcome the communication hurdles that came part in parcel with international travel restrictions brought on by COVID-19. To adapt to the challenges, the company implemented frequent check-ins and alignments to make sure that the team communicates effectively during this period. Fortunately, it had already authorized remote working options for its employees from the very start. This aided Keyless to adapt to an entirely remote environment in a short period.

Andrea says, "A positive outcome of the pandemic's lockdowns is that we’re seeing a sustained interest in data privacy issues. As a cybersecurity startup, we're lucky to be able to launch during a period of heightened awareness with a product that directly addresses the need for privacy-enhancing authentication solutions."

 

Awards and Recognitions: Hallmarks of Exemplary Services

Enterprise Security Magazine named Keyless in the ‘Best Emerging Multi-Factor Authentication and Identity Management Solution Provider 2019’ and ‘Top 5 Multi-Factor Authentication Solution Providers in the UK 2020’.

Keyless also won the Southern European Star 2020 award in the B2B Category and has participated in 8 renowned cybersecurity and fintech accelerator programs, including Plug&Play Fintech Cohort, Mastercard Lighthouse, Mayor's International Business Program, LORCA, Cylon, LongHash, Deutsche Telekom’s Hubraum and Kickstarter Innovation.

"Participating in several accelerator programs has allowed us to start conversations with numerous companies, some of which have progressed to advanced stages. We envision to start pilots in the financial sector in the next month. We're not only seeing demand across Europe but also in Singapore and South America," says Andrea.

 

Envisioning a Secure Future

Speaking about the future, Andrea is confident that the cybersecurity industry is going through a period of mass transformation. He explains, "The way we manage our identities both online and in the real world will change dramatically in the next decade. At Keyless, we believe biometrics are the answer to solving the key challenges that have arisen in this space. Biometrics allows us to close the gap between security, privacy, and convenience. By leveraging biometric solutions, organizations can offer a seamless authentication experience and powerful security."