AironWorks, the cybersecurity startup founded by a duel team of an Israeli engineer and a Japanese entrepreneur, won two platinum awards in the TechCrunch Tokyo 2021 conference.
Twenty startups from across Japan participated in the “Startup Battle”, the main event of the TechCrunch Tokyo 2021 conference, which took place on December 2nd and 3rd in Tokyo. Out of only six startups to advance to the final round, AironWorks was the only one to take home two platinum awards: the Amazon Web Services Japan Award, and the oVice Award.
AironWorks was the only startup participating in the final to be less than one year old, showing the incredible promise of its cybersecurity solution.
AironWorks is developing an AI-based cybersecurity simulation and training platform to enhance company’s security from the employee-level up. AironWork’s CEO, Ani Terada, came up with the idea for a cybersecurity startup after hearing again and again of the devastating consequences phishing attacks have on organizations worldwide, and especially in his home country Japan. While losses caused by phishing attacks globally were estimated to be over 5 billion dollars in 2020, Japanese corporations were hit especially hard, as cybersecurity awareness in Japan is lower than in the rest of the western world. Notable examples include the Japanese media giant Nikkei who lost $29 Million dollars, and major data breaches in tech corporations such as Panasonic and LINE.
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While discussing the issue with a friend, former cybersecurity intelligence unit 8200 member Gonen Krak, the two decided to found AironWorks to help organizations protect their digital assets and sensitive information using AI. This dual combination of leadership, with Terada as CEO and Krak as CTO, created the first ever Japanese-Israeli cybersecurity startup, with teams in both countries. The development and product team, composed of another former 8200 programmer and a Japanese market expert product manager, is located in Israel, while the marketing team, composed of Japanese marketing and sales experts, is located in Japan.
This allowed AironWorks to gain significant traction in the Japanese market. The startup is already working closely with several major Japanese companies and is about to embark on a partnership with a major Japanese bank. While many Japanese companies are in talks with AironWorks to begin using its solution, existing clients express their satisfaction with the service. “When we were facing the challenge of training our employees on cybersecurity, we came across AironWorks and decided to implement it immediately,” said Mr. Hori, the President and Representative Director of Good Crew Co., “We were especially impressed with the fact it can train our employees to detect phishing attacks with techniques from the Israeli Defense forces. We could clearly see the results of the training and simulations after implementing AironWorks.”
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The startup also received investment from one of the best SaaS-backing VCs in Japan, ALL STAR SaaS, who invested in one of the only-ever Japanese unicorns, Smart HR.
Winning the two platinum awards in TechCrunch is only a small step in AironWork’s plan to take over the Japanese and global cybersecurity market by storm. Aironworks is working to expand their client base in the USA and is currently on the lookout for a VP Marketing representative in Japan. If you’re interested in hearing more about AironWorks, please contact us on info@aironworks.com for more information.
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