Rob Leslie, co-founder, Sedicii
The World Economic Forum has named Waterford start-up Sedicii as its Technology Pioneer 2015 for its Zero Knowledge Proof Protocol technology, which is revolutionising personal security in the digital age.
Sedicii, a previous Siliconrepublic.com Start-up of the Week, has developed technology that enables secure authentication by ensuring the correct password or identity attribute has been entered into a user’s device, without ever exposing or transmitting the password or the concealed personal identity attribute.
Sedicii was chosen by a professional jury among hundreds of candidates as one of the 49 selected companies. Notable members of the committee include Arianna Huffington, founder, Huffington Post, and Henry Blodget, editor-in-chief, Business Insider.
Thanks to its selection, it will have access to the most influential and sought-after business and political network in the world, and be invited to the World Economic Forum’s “Summer Davos” in Dalian, China, this September, or the Annual Meeting in Davos in January.
“We’re glad to see an Irish company make it to the selection,” said Fulvia Montresor, head of Technology Pioneers at the World Economic Forum. “Sedicii is part of a group of entrepreneurs who are more aware of the crucial challenges of the world around them, and who are determined to do their part to solve those challenges with their company.”
The Sedicii story
Sedicii founders Rob Leslie and Richard Coady
Sedicii was founded by Robert Leslie and Richard Coady. Its patented Zero Knowledge Proof Protocol technology, originally developed at the National University of Ireland Galway, is designed to protect both consumers’ and corporates’ sensitive personal data
An electronics engineer by profession, Leslie has a successful track record of establishing and growing businesses to considerable scale. He spent 20 years earlier in his career in Japan.
There, he was part of the management team in Dell Japan that established and grew the business to almost 300 employees and US$300m turnover in four years. He also co-founded, grew and ultimately sold PTS Japan in 2000, having achieved a US$33m company valuation within five years of establishment. He is also a co-founder of Global Business Register in Ireland, which specialises in sourcing official business information for anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance services.
Fellow Sedicii co-founder Richard Coady has 20 years of experience in technology sales and business development locally and globally, and has a proven track record and strong expertise in strategic market development, commercial planning and positioning, negotiation, relationship building and delivering results in evolving markets.
The patented Zero Knowledge Proof Protocol has also brought Sedicii recognition as winners of the BT Infinity Challenge and the EY Start-up Challenge.
