The vibrant startup ecosystem in the country has witnessed the inception of companies focused on various segments of the technology domain, but the area of cyber security has seen far and few between. Innefu Labs, a cyber security startup founded by two college batchmates—Tarun Wig and Abhishek Sharma—wants to change that perception; it has even been able to make deep inroads in this niche area.

Four years into the business and competing against the established global players, Innefu Labs now has very credible set of clients and is looking to expand further. Tarun Wig, Co-Founder, Innefu Labs says, “We were always interested in information security. There are very few companies in India which are interested in developing information security products.”

He adds that from a nation’s perspective, it is important to have indigenous cyber security products. Innefu Labs has major government clients like DRDO, CRPF in its kitty with its flagship product being Authshield, a multi-factor authentication protocol.

Abhishek Sharma, Co-Founder, Innefu Labs describes the last four years as roller coaster ride with its share of ups and down. “Going head to head with international companies was very challenging but our products have been well received,” he says. Their journey has also been helped by the fact that government is also focused on developing cyber security products from within the country.

The differentiating factors for Innefu Labs, which helped it cement its place in the cyber security segment, has been its approach. The company does security authentication at the underlying protocol level rather than just at the application level. Its products are applicable both during log-in process as well as in the ensuing transactions. It also has biometric face recognition module incorporated in its products, which makes it highly reliable system.

Today, Innefu Labs has its clients primarily in the public sector domain. It is now looking at entering into other segments namely banking and SMEs. Sharma says it has come out with a cloud-based system to enable SMEs to access their cyber security products. The company, which has been largely self-funded, is now looking to raise funds for its overseas expansion plan. Wig says it would primarily look at the South-East Asia and Middle East markets.

Innefu Labs which is expecting a 100% growth in revenue during the current financial year is confident that it can become a truly global entity. Wig says, “Our solution is a stable product and we will establish a pan India presence. At the same time we will continue to come out with new innovative products.”

At the same time, there are certain challenges in running this business. Sharma says, “The biggest challenge for us is industry acceptability where we get regular question on how many clients are we working with.” Innefu Labs got a big break from the government enterprises and is now putting in all its efforts to make a headway into the private sector.

Source: The Financial Express

Image Courtesy: The Financial Express