We caught up with Sujeesh Krishnan of Kinnami, a member of ICE71 Accelerate’s fourth cohort.

Q: Tell us more about yourself.

I am Sujeesh Krishnan, CEO of Kinnami Software Corporation. We are a data security and privacy startup based in Boston, U.S., with teammates in Washington D.C., London, and Singapore.

Q: What inspired you to start your startup? What is your goal or dream for your startup?

The original inspiration for the technology that Kinnami is providing comes from the realization back in 2006 – that it was so hard and too slow to share large files (pictures, videos, etc.) with non-techie family members around the world while also retaining privacy. Even today, that problem is not served well. Over decades in the data protection and security segments of the IT industry, we have become frustrated with the industry’s patchwork of solutions that have led to ever- greater disasters in the form of data leaks and most recently fake news – information that cannot be trusted.

Consequently, we have become determined to provide a better platform that prevents a number of essential problems in data security and protection. “Data without security is worthless. Security without data is pointless,” so separating the 2 topics, which has happened as a result of the evolution of IT over the last 30 years, is really just not a good idea. These need to be fixed together. Properly.

Kinnami’s vision is to completely alter the way organisations think of data security and storage and eliminate the current patchwork of solutions that serves as IT security today. Data security now keeps IT admins up and night and is a hot topic in corporate boardrooms. The ability to play a key part in addressing this big challenge is a huge motivation for us as a company.

Q: What is the problem you want to solve with your product or solution? Tell us more about your solution.

Kinnami enables organisations to protect sensitive data everywhere. Our innovative distributed data storage and security platform, AmiShare avoids the classic data security and protection patchwork. Instead it provides organisations with an easy way to secure the creation, storage, and sharing of data both within organisations and externally. AmiShare separates administrators and end-users’ responsibilities, aligning them more precisely with their goals. All this is verified by AmiShare’s auditing.

AmiShare enables organisations to manage the security of data by defining policies to control who may access them and where they are stored, providing protection wherever they are stored or shared. This includes data centers, cloud stores, laptops, mobiles, removable drives, and IoT devices. Security of stored data is enhanced by breaking data into fragments, individually encrypting fragments with individual encryption keys and storing them across multiple devices/servers.

Q: Who might find use for your solution?

Any organization that needs a more secure way to store, collaborate and audit the access of confidential information will find value in AmiShare. Some of our early markets of interest include regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, supply chain, as well as academia, and military.

In today’s remote work from home environment caused by COVID-19, SMEs as well as enterprises will find AmiShare to be a better way to manage sensitive data that is being accessed on potentially unsecure devices and networks.

Q: What have you enjoyed the most being a part of the ICE71 Accelerate programme?

We have found the programme to be of high quality, with extremely relevant topics for our company at its current stage of evolution. The ability to interact directly and build relationships with CISOs, subject matter experts, and successful founders, as well as peers has been invaluable. We have also appreciated the opportunity to connect with parties at Singtel, NUS, IMDA, and CSA among others, on a one-one basis and in exploring collaborative projects.

Learn more about Kinnami at kinnami.com