Waterford firm Sedicii named WEF Technology Pioneer

Irish technology firm Sedicii has been named as one of the World Economic Forum's most promising technology pioneers.

The Waterford-headquartered company joins a list of past recipients such as Google, Wikimedia, Mozilla, Kickstarter and Dropbox.

As part of the award, it will be invited to attend the World Economic Forum’s “Summer Davos” in Dalian, China, in September, or the annual meeting in Davos in January.

Sedicii was chosen by a jury from hundreds of candidates to make the 2015 list, and is the only Irish firm to do so. The majority of the list were based in America, with four from the UK, two from the Netherlands and Israel, and single recipients from Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden and Taiwan.

The company, which was also an Irish Times/InterTrade Ireland Innovation Awards finalist, has developed system designed to make consumers and businesses safer online. It offers a secure authentication technology that means passwords and other identifying data do not have to be transmitted to verify a user’s identity.

That reduces the risk of identity theft and other fraud, a serious concern for consumers and corporates alike.

The patented “Zero Knowledge Proof Protocol” was developed at National University of Ireland, Galway. It is that technology that earned its place on the WEF’s list.

Founder Rob Leslie said the award was enormously significant for the company. "There are not many organisations around the world with the status of the WEF," he said. "It'll give us a platform, and give us the opportunity to engage with people we otherwise wouldn't have had the opportunity to speak to. We'll still have to do the work, it won't arrive on our desks."

The system will allow users to manage what sites hold information about their identity, provided they have implemented the Sedicii protocol.

The technology comes as EU member states and the European Parliament begin negotiations to overhaul the region’s data protection regulations, and ongoing security concerns prompt users to seek out better authentication methods.

“There’s a big drive to replace passwords with biometrics,” Mr Leslie said. “The technology applies to that as well.”

It essentially allows users to own their identity, and could be used to allow users to gain value from their digital identity.

Sedicii already has a string awards to its name. In December, it was named as winner of the EY Startup Challenge in London. That followed its victory in the European Commission Ipacso awards as best privacy company, and the Irish Times/ITLG Silicon Valley Innovation of the Year in 2014. It also scooped the top prize at the BT Infinity Lab Challenge last year.

The company will also compete in the Innotribe Startup Challenge in October in Singapore. The firm was named as one of the five European finalists in the competition earlier this year.