Your startup in one sentence?

ONEKEY is the leading specialist for automating in product cybersecurity and compliance automation for manufacturers and operators.

How did your business idea come about?

In classic penetration tests in the IoT/OT sector, many basic analyses are routine. This gave rise to the idea of automating them, enriching them with additional services, and making them available to customers inter­nationally as a comprehensive product cybersecurity platform. We then supplemented this with product cyber compliance.

How big is your team, who is in it, and how did you find each other?

The ONEKEY team currently consists of 34 cybersecurity, research, development, sales, and marketing specialists in Germany, Hungary, and Belgium, and we are looking for more specialists to support our growth. Unfortunately, the cybersecurity community in Europe is still very small.

Who profits from your product/your solution, and why?

Our primary customers and target group are all manufacturers of smart products in the industrial automation, automotive, medtech, and telecommunications industries worldwide. They save effort, resources, and costs with our platform through automated generation of software bills of materials (SBOM) as well as vulnerability analysis and management. With the integrated, patent-pending Compliance Wizard, it is easier and faster to achieve and monitor compliance with the upcoming EU Cyber Resilience Act, IEC 62443, and many inter­national standards.

Infrastructure and production operators can perform automatic, digital incoming goods inspections for third-party IoT/OT products, enabling them to better monitor infrastructure and suppliers in terms of cybersecurity and quality.

What are your next steps?

Leading global companies in Europe, the US, and Asia are already using our platform. We see significant growth potential, particularly in Asia and the US, and are stepping up our activities in these regions.

We will be introducing some exciting new automation features to the platform—with direct AI integration, of course.

Why are you convinced that you will be successful?

Global companies in Asia, Europe, and the US are already benefiting from our solution. Our unique, patent-pending combination of leading cybersecurity binary analysis with an automated compliance guide, the Compliance Wizard, comes at just the right time. We are the answer to the globally increasing demand for IoT/OT cybersecurity and legal regulations such as the EU Cyber Resilience Act, the U.S. CyberMark, the UK PSTI, and many others. All manufacturers worldwide must now invest in this issue – with ONEKEY, they can do so efficiently, automatically, and with a minimum of resources.

What have been the biggest successes and hurdles/low points so far?

When we founded the company in 2020, the idea was to market everything through partners. That was far too early; there was hardly any interest in the market and even less knowledge about IoT/OT among sales partners. So in 2021/2022, we pressed the reset button and reinvented ourselves with a clear focus on businesses and successful, inter­national direct sales with carefully selected partners.

Why did you apply for the ATHENE Startup Award UP25@it-sa?

The ATHENE Startup Award@it-sa is one of the most prestigious awards in Germany, and we want to use our application to strengthen Germany as a business location and raise awareness of our platform beyond the typical IoT cybersecurity community. That's why we'll also have a booth at IT-SA to present our solution live.

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