Interview with DuoKey, a cybersecurity startup boosted by the pandemic

Founded by Nagib Aouini in 2020, DuoKey secures corporate data with its data encryption key distribution technology.

Based in the EPFL Innovation Park, the startup grew rapidly with the emergence of cybersecurity needs due to the democratization of telecommuting during the pandemic.

DuoKey's solution ismulti-party computing algorithms . The software technology slices the keys and distributes the different parts with a multi-cloud approach, offering additional security to businesses, and in particular those using the Microsoft 365 cloud; DuoKey took part in the second season of the Tech4Trust program at the EPFL Innovation Park, where it finished among the three most promising startups.

The added value provided by DuoKey has enabled the company to rapidly win customers in a myriad of sectors, from luxury goods and humanitarian aid to connected vehicles and banking, and the team of 4 employees and 12 experts is proving a great success: "In just nine months, we've reached the target we set ourselves for 2023!

In addition to the support of its professors and the opportunity to hire qualified interns, DuoKey has also benefited from the help of Innovaud, SPEI and InnoSuisse - a "little help" to find one's way in an ecosystem where multiple support mechanisms coexist; this is what particularly motivates Nagib Aouini to stay in the ecosystem since "the key to our success is to always be at the cutting edge of innovation through research".

Nagib Aouini is also active in a second startup, Partisia Blockchainwhose technology is highly complementary to DuoKey's and which has just closed a $25 million round of financing. DuoKey is collaborating with Partisia on a project enabling secure electronic identity management based on blockchain and the distribution of encryption keys.

As such, both companies were invited to take part in the public consultation on the e-ID and are working on a pilot project with three cantons. 

Source : Innovaud