Waterford firm among world’s ‘most promising’

A Waterford technology firm has been named as one of the world’s ‘most promising’ by the World Economic Forum.

Sedicii, based in Waterford’s Institute of Technology, is the only Irish company to appear on the prestigious list of the world’s 49 ‘most promising technology pioneers’.

The firm was chosen from hundreds of candidates by a professional jury which included Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, and Henry Blodget, editor of Business Insider. Past recipients include Google, Dropbox, Wikimedia and Kickstarter.

Predictably, the list is dominated by firms from the US — more than two thirds of the companies listed are based there.

Some four firms from the UK are listed, followed by two from both Israel and the Netherlands and individual recipients from Ireland, Canada, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Taiwan, China.

“I wasn’t expecting it at all, it’s great. It gives us access to people we would never have had a hope of reaching before. It will give us great exposure,” said Sedicci founder Rob Leslie.

“The World Economic Forum carries a lot of gravitas. If they say something is worth paying attention to, people will sit up and take notice. It means a lot, it’s incredibly significant.”

Set up in 2013, Sedicii has produced a secure authentication technology which eliminates the transmission and storage of private identity data — this reduces the possibility of identity theft, impersonation and the resulting fraud. The software was initially developed at National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG).

“We’ve essentially developed a piece of software that, in its simplest incarnation, lets you keep your password private. So we’re asking you to prove that you know your password, instead of asking you for your password,” said Mr Leslie.