GLOBES: Kibbutz Sasa to invest $5m in encryption co Safe-T

7 May 13 18:42, Yuval Azulai

The company will use most of the proceeds to expand overseas and widen its customer base.

Sources inform ''Globes'' that Kibbutz Sasa will invest $5 million in encryption information security start-up Safe-T Ltd. The company will use most of the proceeds to expand overseas and widen its customer base.

Safe-T VP sales Roy Haberman says that the company will initially work with customers of Plasan Sasa Ltd., a maker of modular armor kits for vehicles.

Safe-T and Kibbutz Sasa began collaborating through Plasan, which the kibbutz owns. Plasan hired Safe-T to provide information security for the company's emails, with an emphasis on confidential correspondence and routine control on incoming and outgoing files.

"The investment in the company follows directly on our successful technology collaboration. Our goal is to build the company and to grow with it. The packages it offers enable enterprises to deal with new information security challenges which arise from the expansion of information sharing and the use of cloud services, while reducing costs and without harming the enterprise's productivity," said Yaakov Yaroslav, who handles Kibbutz Sasa's software operations.

Safe-T currently has several score employees. Its customers include ECI Telecom Ltd.Psagot Investment House Ltd., Shomera Insurance Co. Ltd.,Iscar Ltd.Israel Land Development Company (TASE: ILDC), Given Imaging Ltd. (Nasdaq: GIVN; TASE: GIVN), the Weizmann Institute of Science, and the University of Haifa. The company was founded in 2007 with an initial investment of $5 million from private investors. Amir Mizhar is the CEO.

Safe-T's services include comprehensive enterprise information security packages which comply with regulatory requirements. The package's unique integration capabilities make possible secure enterprise procedures in line with each enterprise's information sharing policy.

The investment will make Kibbutz Sasa Safe-T's largest shareholder. The company declined to mention a number, but an executive said, "We're talking less than 50%".

Haberman says that Safe-T will use half of Kibbutz Sasa's investment to consolidate overseas operations, with an emphasis on the US, UK, Germany, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The company already has sales offices in London and New York. "We believe that consolidation in new markets in the world will enable us to reach the substantial figure of $30 million in sales within three years," he says.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 7, 2013

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