Project description
Protecting sensitive data
Highly secure solutions featuring end-to-end encryption are technologically challenging. None of the traditional large tech companies have attempted to develop an architecture based upon end-to-end encryption. The EU-funded ProtonSuite project will expand the offer of secure email and storage services currently available in this market. Building on ProtonMail, which has become a uniquely innovate and award-winning product that provides encrypted email services to over 15 million users, the project will develop secure cloud storage and productivity tools, along with implementing a revolutionary encryption key management system based on blockchain technology. This will allow us to commercialise ProtonSuite, a complete and secure collaboration suite for organisations of all sizes. It will provide encrypted email, storage, calendar, VPN and contact management, in addition to a publicly auditable key management system.
Objective
Ninety-two percent of Europeans are concerned about software applications collecting their data without their consent, and only 3% of EU citizens trust email service providers to protect their personal information. Businesses are also concerned about data protection as a result of increasing cyberattacks. These factors, together with the global transition to cloud services and the new GDPR, will drive the growth of the cybersecurity market.
In this market, the current offer of secure email and storage services is still limited. Highly secure solutions featuring end-to-end encryption are technologically challenging. None of the traditional large tech companies have attempted to develop an architecture based upon end-to-end encryption.
ProtonMail, founded in 2013 in Geneva by a group of CERN, Harvard and Caltech scientists, identified early on the need for secure communication channels for consumers and businesses. ProtonMail has now become a uniquely innovative and award-winning product that provides user-friendly encrypted email services to over 7 million users. We are already signing agreements with important government agencies in the Vatican, Germany and Croatia, as well as with large enterprises.
We will now expand our offer to secure cloud storage and productivity tools, along with implementing a revolutionary encryption key management system based on blockchain technology. This will allow us to commercialize ProtonSuite, a complete and secure collaboration suite for businesses of all sizes. We will thus provide encrypted email, storage, calendar and contact management, in addition to a publicly auditable key management system.
The Phase 2 will require the development of custom libraries, clients and APIs to support the advanced collaboration features, as well as an expansion of our current datacenters. This will allow us to drive our yearly revenues from €5 million to €50 million by 2024, reaching a ROI of 4.13 and creating over 60 jobs.
Fields of science
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencescomputer securitydata protection
- natural sciencesphysical sciencestheoretical physicsparticle physics
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencescomputer securitycryptography
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsproduction economicsproductivity
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftwaresoftware applications
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
1228 PLAN LES OUATES
Switzerland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.