Sedicii, headquartered in Waterford, Ireland was founded in 2013. It is the sixth start-up founded by serial entrepreneur Rob Leslie, Founder & CEO of the company. Sedicii is creating a global federated privacy ecosystem where governments, financial institutions, national utilities and telco’s will be the foundation for KYC, KYB and AML services in respect of a private individual. At the core of Sedicii’s services is its patented ZKP (zero knowledge proof) protocol. ZKP allows for the verification of personal ID without either party to the verification process having to share the raw data. “Rather than the traditional method of documentation verification, the future is to rely on authoritative data to prove identity – while concurrently protecting the privacy of the individual,” says Rob.
Rob asserts “there is nothing that focuses your mind about the importance of privacy like having your personal information and credentials “hacked” online. Working in my previous company, Kyckr, we worked on KYC for companies and entities, and I saw the next natural step as personal privacy and so Sedicii was founded.”
In an interview with Insights Success, Rob Leslie shared his view on a variety of reasons why electronic identity verification is critical in modern times, and how Sedicii is embarking on providing “best in class” digital identity.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
As a security solutions provider company, what contribution has the company made in assisting its clients in achieving measurable goals?
The Sedicii development team are passionate when it comes to helping our clients through the process of integrating our technologies seamlessly into their existing workflows. We fully acknowledge that the concept of verification without information sharing is hard for people to get their heads around. We expect and – dare I say it – welcome the “Doubting Thomas” sceptic. However, the measurable goals show almost instantaneous benefits in terms of cost-effectiveness, real-time validation, enhanced privacy, efficiencies and reliability.
How does Sedicii’s solution differ from the other companies’ solutions?
In the context of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) transaction monitoring processes, using Sedicii’s solutions enables banks to better collaborate where they can jointly compute advanced risk assessment algorithms that consume customer information available in the different banks without actually having to share that information -. all enabled by using Sedicii’s patented multi-party computation (MPC) cryptographic protocol.
Sedicii’s solution allows financial institutions to securely share the insights they have about clients or transactions, without disclosing the underlying confidential data or information (PII). This enables financial institutions to identify potentially suspicious transactions more clearly and accurately by combining the risk information they have – which enables more effective detection of criminal activity.
Give an insight about importance of AI in security solutions and how aspects of the solution are changing with the advancement in technology?
Sedicii is spending significant time and effort working on the development and refinement of new technologies in the areas of advanced cryptography, biometrics and artificial intelligence. These capabilities allow us to deliver more robust verification capabilities which protect privacy and confidentiality without compromising on the need to hold the data that proves someone really is who they claim to be.
Give a detailed description of the featured person’s influence over the company and the industry.
Rob is a serial entrepreneur and a World Economic Forum (WEF) Technology Pioneer. He has spoken at Davos on cybersecurity, digital identity and other technology issues affecting the world’s economies. Additionally, Rob has spoken at worldwide seminars and conferences such as EU Parliament (ESPAS) Conference, the International Economic Forum of the Americas Conference, Montreal, Canada, the Horasis Global Summits where he is regarded as an industry leader. In addition to addressing these important global communities Rob believes strongly that listening to the experiences of others keeps him up to date with the latest technologies and relevant trends as well as allowing him to meet with other like-minded creative professionals.
As a Founder / CEO, Rob is very hands-on and has had a deep involvement in the evolution of Sedicii. “In the early years, I was it!” Rob says. “I researched ZKP for almost two years whilst working at my previous company Kyckr and in 2016 relinquished my role there to concentrate fulltime on Sedicii”. “I sought out investors, did the market research and finally in 2016 we began our growth from one person to today’s group of 16 people” The company is now multi-locational with finance and operations at our base in Waterford, Ireland, innovation and strategy is based in the U.K. and technology development is based in Belgium and the Canary Islands.
How do you sustain in the current unpredictable markets and hectic competition?
Sedicii is on a mission and has seen a definite increase in organisations looking to collaborate over the past 12 months. In many respects, Covid-19 has focused minds on the positives and negatives of becoming digital by default. We regularly hear in the media of the huge growth in online activity be it retail, commercial, banking or social. We also hear of the corresponding significant growth and the upsurge in fraud, impersonation, personal and financial theft. Pre-Covid, perhaps we were in denial of the relevance or importance of keeping our private information private? Perhaps the internet problem, described by Andrew Grove former CEO, COO and Chairman of Intel when he said “Privacy is one of the biggest problems in this new electronic age”, will finally be taken seriously. We are sustained by the team’s utter conviction in our products and services and the prediction of former BBVA Head of Open Innovation who stated that “Sedicii is the start-up with the greatest potential to transform the financial sector in the next 10 years!”.
What is your vision for Sedicii? And what would be the best roadmap for getting there?
By working with other like-minded organisations and building a global federated network Sedicii’s vision is to make the Universal Declaration of Human Rights real such that “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks” while accessing technology at the same time.
The roadmap is created through a combination of our investors, employees, stakeholders who believe in our vision and for whom all seek to succeed. Additionally, the roadmap includes our customers, partners and community whose online experiences will become more secure and who will see reputational enhancements, organisation cost effectiveness and operation improvements in efficiencies.
Rob Leslie, Founder & CEO, Sedicii
