Latin American Entrepreneurs Expand to Mexico

Cybersecurity company Kriptos is ready to expand its operations to a new market: Mexico. “Mexico is the main country for us in Latin America […] Kriptos has already grown and needs to mature in all of its processes to get even bigger,” assures Christian Torres, Co-Founder and CEO of Kriptos, in an interview with Forbes Mexico. The company operates already in the US and Spain.

“We already have customers in Mexico but we want to grow and aid many more companies in the country, for which we need to establish a larger sales team using the newly acquired capital,” told Torres to El Economista. The company, created by two Ecuatorian cousins, Christian Torres and Alfonso Villalba, helps other firms to identify confidential information through artificial intelligence (AI) and protects it from leaking. It has already classified over 100 million documents and has over 20,000 active users. Kriptos uses three AI algorithms that enable different sensitivity functions to be applied on analyzed data, which can include baking information or personal data, through different platforms such as the cloud and computer equipment, explains Forbes Mexico. Kriptos raised a US$1.25 million investment in its last investment round, which was led by Buentrip Ventures and took place last year. So far, the company has received US$1.8 million in investments, reports El Economista.

The cousins funded their first startup back in 2016, which became Kriptos in 2018. While both cousins are from Ecuador, they argue that the company was born on the other side of the world. “Kriptos was not born in Ecuador, it was born in Israel. We are the first Latin American company that has received funding from Barclays,” Torres said to Forbes Mexico. Villalba explained to Forbes that the company’s success is due to its precision. “Our innovative edge is based on precision, a larger catchment capacity or document classification and speed, which is 100 percent automated.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated Kriptos’ growth as more people work remotely through a computer with cloud access, generating a booming need to properly classify sensitive information and prevent data leaks. Claudio Martinelli, Managing Director for Latin America of Kaspersky, explained to MBN the importance of cybersecurity for companies of all sizes, including startups. His recommendations include creating frequent backups, keeping systems updated, controlling the use of credentials and encrypting sensitive data, among others. Companies can also add a further layer of protection through third-party services.