Over the last decade, Israel has become quite the cyber empire, while the country’s blockchain startups have cause some positive ruckus as well, however, not many companies combine the two successful industries. Here is where Valid Network comes into play, as it has developed a cyber-security platform specifically for blockchain applications. Today (Tuesday), the Israeli startup announced an $8 million funding round led by Ten Eleven Ventures.
No matter how many times we think blockchain’s heyday is behind us, the technology is still alive and kicking, and many new innovations continue to use the technology as a base for development. Companies and organizations that use blockchain-based solutions may enjoy the technology that opens quite a few new options, and even seems pretty secure, but like in every new connected tech, it comes with many risks and dangers, especially from those who lurk in the shadows.
Blockchain just sounds more secure
Valid Network’s system provides conglomerates and organizations which have integrated blockchain-based services. The system can identify hacks in contracts, locate weak code, detect anomalies, and adjust back to prior versions. All this is done while keeping up with every country’s strict regulations and preventing fraud attempts.
The Israeli cyber-blockchain startup was founded in 2017 by CEO Kfir Nissan and CTO Gilad Eisenberger, who was formerly a key developer at Microsoft’s R&D center. Back in 2018 before the days of COVID-19, the company received a $2 million investment led by the JVP, which was the fund’s first step into blockchain investment.
Now though, the company raised $8 million which it intends to prioritize towards further R&D of its key products, as well as opening a U.S. based headquarters in NYC. The company currently employs a team of 13 at the Israeli offices in the cyber capital of Be’er Sheva.
CEO and co-founder Kfir Nissan tells Geektime that during the previous funding round the company was just learning to crawl, however, today, the company is taking major steps towards success. Nissan tells of a recent case study where a company using Valid Network’s smart contract monitor was able to identify no less than 178 damaging issues within seconds of connecting.
In 2018 the headlines screamed for blockchain, but do you still believe in the technology in 2020?
Nissan: “True, in 2018 there was a lot of hype surrounding virtual coins. Mostly negative hype because it prevented organizations from using the technology. Though, these days, now that the hype has finally passed, organizations are integrating distribution infrastructure as part of the organizational infrastructure in an effort to launch organizational applications on it. As the technology has gained more attention, we can see more practical use of it in the field.”
Nissan explains that dlt technology is a direct evolution of the infrastructure grid that supports the cloud computing concept and the company are certain that like containers and service without a server are currently an inseparable part of an organization’s infrastructure, so will dlt join the club of an organization’s critical technologies.
“An important factor when adopting technology is the understanding that this is the first time that computing infrastructure has an impact on realizing new business models since the invention of the internet. This reason accelerates an organization’s disposition to adopting the technology by skipping over the initial standard efforts, the startups, and developers themselves,” explains Nissan.