Kickstarter campaign brings cyber security ‘guardian’ to market

A digital security specialist has launched a crowdfunding campaign to bring its first consumer, cyber security product to market.

Zobi has already garnered interest from venture capital and crowdfunding efforts, having raised over £500,000 via angel investors, institutional investors and equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs.

It will now utilise Kickstarter to meet its stretch goals of securing 10,000 units worth of ‘Hedgehog’ pre-orders in the next 30 days.

Hedgehog, described by Zobi as a ‘digital guardian’, uses artificial intelligence and human heuristics to detect and block suspicious or unsafe activity or devices on a whole home network, and also creates a safe guest Wi-Fi for visitors.

The device acts as a piece of homeware and protects user privacy, by not storing any personal, sensitive data or browsing history from a home’s connected devices.

It will also be able to monitor the dark web and social media for signs of bullying, abuse and online predators that could affect a household.

Scott Lever, founder of Hedgehog, said: “Our mission is to create technology that puts customers’ privacy first, and our vision is to help to create a world where people’s privacy and personal data stay safe.”

In the last twelve months, Zobi has received investment after winning the Start-Up Series competition, and having been selected by Google from 12,000 start-ups for its renowned Start-Up Grind Global Conference.

Additionally, it was invited to join KPMG as one of only 11 cyber start-ups for their expert arena and venture matching programme.