Kapalya, an encryption management platform, has received a $256,000 grant from the US’ National Science Foundation (NSF).
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant will used to support research and development on an AI-based advanced counter ransomware solution.
Once a company has been awarded a Phase I SBIR grant, they are eligible to apply for a Phase II grant, which is up to $1m. If a company successfully obtains the Phase II funding, they can receive up to $500,000 in additional matching funds with qualifying third-party investment or sales.
Kapalya founder and CEO Sudesh Kumar said, “We are very honoured to receive this award from the National Science Foundation. Winning this award endorses our counter ransomware deep-technology solution.
“Once fully developed, we will provide governments, enterprises and SMBs with a cutting-edge solution to protect their organizations against ransomware, which has become the main form of cyberattacks as shown by breaches at Colonial Pipeline and Kaseya. Our objective is to block and prevent ransomware attacks and to guard against data exploitation.”
Kapalya has built an enterprise encryption management platform to secure unstructured data. One of its use cases involves data recovery on endpoints after a ransomware incident.
It hopes to enhance its capabilities by developing an enhanced counter ransomware solution based on AI, which can prevent, remediate and eradicate ransomware in active memory spaces.
Andrea Belz, division director of the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships at NSF, said, “NSF is proud to support the technology of the future by thinking beyond incremental developments and funding the most creative, impactful ideas across all markets and areas of science and engineering.
“With the support of our research funds, any deep technology startup or small business can guide basic science into meaningful solutions that address tremendous needs.”
The NSF issues $200m annually to startups and small businesses making scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact.
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