Drones, robots and crypto: how Prosegur Tech Ventures invests in the security start-ups of

Start-ups emerged in the Californian city of San Francisco in the 50s, their defining features being their significant scalability and their commitment to revolutionising broad swathes of the market. In the 1970s, they were given their first significant impetus by the birth of Microsoft and Apple, the largest company on the planet, and after meteoric growth in the internet era, with the the arrival of Amazon, Yahoo, eBay and Facebook in the 90s and 2000s, they have become a catalyst for economic development worldwide. Following the pandemic, tech companies grew 2.3 times more than their counterparts of other kinds, according to the latest report from Startup Genome.

Prosegur Tech Ventures, the company's start-up investment vehicle set up as an investment fund, has been one of the players involved in boosting the financing of tech firms in the world. This branch of Prosegur was established in 2018 to invest in groundbreaking initiatives in the world of security, which have the ambition to scale up and transform the sector and offer synergies to the entity's business lines: from fintech and crypto companies for Prosegur Cash, to drones and robots for Prosegur Security and start-ups in the field of cybersecurity.

Since it was established, Prosegur Tech Ventures has invested in various emerging companies in seven countries (Spain, Brazil, the United States, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom and Israel) with which they work on different lines. "We only invest in companies in which the business is committed to working, considering that it offers significant value. This can be seen as a limitation, but at the same time it is one of our fund's main strengths and a great attraction for start-ups", explains Jaime Fernández, coordinator of Prosegur Tech Ventures.

The latest investment is in SCADAfence, a cybersecurity company based in Israel that safeguards the security of a company's critical infrastructure assets (OT). Another recent example, but in this case from Prosegur Security, is Talkin' Things, a Polish initiative that designs RFID tags for monitoring different assets, such as clothing and medicines. Prosegur Security has this solution within its EAS (Electronic Article Surveillance) line.

Among the success stories, there are also some exits, companies that have been acquired by a larger enterprise, generating a return on investment, such as Hdiv (purchased by Datadog), Walmeric (by Globant), Concil (by PagSeguro) and Cognigo (by NetApp).

In the case of Prosegur Alarms, it has invested in the Spanish company Durcal, whose product is a connected watch that allows families to take care of the elderly. This company is part of the ecosystem of more than 23,383 start-ups that already exist in Spain, according to a study published in October by INFORMA. This figure represents 4% of the total projects created between 2016 and 2021, and growth of 3% compared with the 22,771 detected last year.

With these initiatives, Prosegur offers added value and the experience of more than 40 years as one of the world leaders in the security industry. "We invest globally, provided they have the capacity to support Prosegur in those areas that the firm needs. Our focus is on projects in Series A and pre-Series A. That is, they offer a validated product, capable of working with Prosegur and our customers, and show continuous growth in the number of users and turnover", explains Barbara Albizuri, director of Prosegur Tech Ventures.

Despite the pandemic, 2020 was a record year for cybersecurity investments, with more than $7.8 billion invested worldwide in the sector. Investment in cybersecurity companies has increased more than ninefold since 2011. "Prosegur Tech Ventures is delivering very positive results and the company is committed to continuing to back this way of innovating and diversifying. In the last year we have invested in four start-ups and two venture capital funds and the likelihood is that we will continue to invest in new companies that add value to our customers. However, venture capital is a long-term investment so you have to be patient, seeking to find the most promising firms and, at the same time, supporting those that are part of our portfolio", says Albizuri.

The World Economic Forum estimates that 70% of the new value created globally over the next decade will be based on digital business models. In this area, external and internal innovation have become two complementary and key values at Prosegur for its transformation and that of its customers. The start-ups in which they invest provide knowledge of new sectors, as well as agility when it comes to showcasing new products to the market. "External and internal innovation are totally complementary and both are necessary for the transformation of any company. In the case of technologies and products that are the core of the business, it is important to internalise developments, with internal innovation teams. However, for more innovative and disruptive products, where we see start-ups that cover these niche segments, we are committed to external innovation. Both collaborating and investing. At Prosegur we are convinced that the way to continue guaranteeing the safety of our clients is to focus on this hybrid model", explains Fernández.

Amid this burgeoning wave of global investment in technology, the Ministry of Economy and Digital Transformation, through the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, this month approved the Act to Promote the Start-up Ecosystem, better known as the Start-up Act. A law that positions Spain at the forefront of Europe in the development of a groundbreaking business ecosystem, as well as in the creation and relocation of emerging companies and in the attraction of talent and international capital. "This law will help Spain lead the way in promoting this ecosystem", said the First Vice-President of the Government, Nadia Calviño, in the parliamentary debate about this topic.

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