Google for Startups chooses Alice Biometrics to be part of the first Europe-wide cybersecurity Growth Academy

• Alice Biometrics is one of the 4 Spanish companies chosen to be part of the Google for Startups Growth Academy: Cybersecurity program, which will start next April.
• Throughout the program, selected companies will have access to tools, practices and connections to help them grow their business and work together to develop more secure environments against network threats.

Galicia, March 22, 2023 – In the era of digitalization and the increasingly strong advance of new technologies, there is a high degree of concern for establishing secure environments so that companies, individuals and organizations can develop without fear of the threats that abound frequently on the network. The “Fog of War” report, which Google released at the Munich Security Conference 2022, shows that concrete and serious action must be taken to improve cybersecurity and digital resilience in Europe.

Today Google announced that the Galician company Alice Biometrics will be one of the 15 startups to integrate the first European edition of its Growth Academy program, which will have a clear focus on supporting the acceleration of European companies focused on cybersecurity.

Thanks to this program, the selected startups will have access to tools, best practices and mentors from Google that will allow them to advance in their development. In addition to the practical program that will last three months, this group of companies will benefit from mentoring with experts from the company, including former startups such as VirusTotal from Malaga (acquired in 2012) and Mandiant (2022). In parallel, they will be able to establish contacts with other cybersecurity entrepreneurs thanks to the various meetings that will take place in Europe throughout the year.

We are proud to support startups like Alice Biometrics that are innovating the difference in cybersecurity. At Google for Startups, we believe it is essential to accompany these local innovators, not only in their growth and impact on society, but also because their role is key to address security threats that are constantly evolving and affecting all layers of society, from individuals to governments to businesses of all sizes.

said Sofia Benjumea, Director of Google for Startups for EMEA.

Alice Biometrics is a remote identity verification solution based on an AI engine developed in-house, launched in 2019 after observing that the market lacked a secure, fast and automated identification solution. It currently has customers in sectors such as banking, insurance and mobility, among others, where they help to increase conversion and reduce fraud in discharge processes and throughout the user lifecycle.

We are grateful to be part of the program and have the opportunity to share our experience with Google mentors and the rest of the participants in the program. We hope this opportunity will help us to grow and consolidate Alice as a leading identity verification solution in Spain and internationally.

In the words of Esteban Vázquez, Co-Founder and CTO.

Chosen from more than 120 applications, these 15 startups represent eight countries and are already making important contributions in the region and beyond, from the security of health applications to the defense of educators or the protection of the drinking water supply chain. Google is committed to helping them move forward by equipping them with Google’s tools, best practices, and connections:

• Alice Biometrics (Spain): Galician startup awarded for an identity verification software built on a proprietary AI engine.
• Astran (France): Paris-based Confidential Data Cloud solution that enables companies to use the cloud without encryption keys.
• BlackDice (UK / Spain): A company with roots in Leeds and Malaga that helps telecom operators protect their subscribers from cyber-attacks by using machine learning and predictive technology to identify patterns.
• Build38 (Germany / Spain): A Munich and Barcelona-based company offering mobile application protection solutions that combine AI and the most powerful shielding technology, serving customers in the financial sector, public transport or healthcare.
• CrowdSec (France): Paris-based threat intelligence company offering participatory behavioral protection against malicious IP addresses.
• Cryptr (France): Lille-based company offering a plug-and-play authentication platform that allows software to manage all authentication strategies, such as single sign-on, with just a few lines of code.
• eID Easy (Estonia): Qualified e-signature API marketplace that connects document workflow platforms with certificate authorities around the world with a single integration and contract.
• Elemendar (UK): London-based company creating an AI that reads cyber threat reports made by humans and converts them into industry-standard structured information.
• GoodAccess (Czech Republic): Global cybersecurity platform for the era of remote work, bringing to the world the easiest way to deploy Zero Trust Network Access.
• Nymiz (Spain): The Bilbao-based startup offers AI-based personal data anonymization software that allows you to “protect your data while unlocking its value.”
• Passbolt (Luxembourg): Company serving 15,000 organizations worldwide – “including F500 companies, defense industry, universities” – that builds an open source enterprise password manager.
• Risk Ledger (UK): London-based provider of supply chain security monitoring software that aims to improve the “security maturity” of the global supply chain ecosystem.
• Secfense (Poland): Krakow-based startup that facilitates MFA adoption in large organizations thanks to a no-code integration that takes minutes instead of weeks or months.
• Secjur (Germany): Hamburg-based provider of AI-based compliance tools that aims to put compliance, data protection, information security and whistleblowing “on autopilot.”
• Sentryc (Germany): Berlin-based provider of brand protection software that works to monitor and “stop product piracy on the Internet”.

About Google for Startups

Google for Startups is on a mission to support diverse and inclusive startup communities around the world. Its mission is to connect startups with the right people, products and best practices to help their businesses grow. Google for Startups supports entrepreneurs in more than 125 countries and has locations in Madrid, São Paulo, Seoul, Tel Aviv, Warsaw and Tokyo.

About Alice Biometrics

Alice Biometrics is a world leader in biometric identity verification solutions that enables companies to register new customers 100% online, in compliance with KYC/AML legislation. It is a frictionless solution that helps increase conversion rate and reduce user abandonment during registration processes. Alice Onboarding integrates facial recognition solutions in onboarding processes, life detection to prevent identity theft, automatic document reading and document security tools for fraud prevention. Alice was born in 2019, as a spinoff of Gradiant’s R&D center in Vigo (Spain). They currently have customers across Europe in key verticals such as Fintech, Insurance or Mobility service providers.