“More and more people,” says Ido Erlichman, CEO of Kape Technologies, “understand that they need to be more proactive and gain back control of the information that they share online.” Erlichman, speaking on the Jerusalem Post Zoomcast, explains that the company’s main focus since its inception in 2016 has been to focus on the digital privacy market.
Erlichman identifies several factors in the market that have helped the company’s growth. Since its inception, regulators have become much more proactive in this space, says Erlichman, as evidenced by the growing criticism in the United States of Facebook and its misuse of customer data. Moreover, he said, customers today favor the software by subscription model, which comes with the promise of receiving a high-quality product together with an excellent user experience. Erlichman added that Kape decided to change the standard industry model from offering free solutions to a straightforward business model. “Our only source of revenue is from selling software. We don’t have any free solutions, and we are coming from a pure digital privacy angle. Kape’s vision, explains Erlichman, “is to help millions of people around the world to live a more secure and private digital life.”
Since its inception, Kape has focused on the consumer security business, and, Erlichman explains, success comes about through a combination of innovation and user-friendly software. “it’s not just having the most innovative software,” he says. “It’s packaging the product in a consumer-focused way. In one click, we empower people to have a fully secure, private, stable and fast internet connection. We build our software solutions to enable people to have full control and protection of their digital information in a very straightforward and user-friendly way.”
Erlichman says that the security market is expanding rapidly, and the rapid growth has also enabled the company to reach different types of consumers. “We have moved from serving people that are more tech-savvy to a large mainstream market with more and more people, who understand that they need to be more proactive and gain back control over the information they share online.”
Erlichman explains that the pandemic, which has forced many people to leave their offices and work from their homes – which have less secure internet connections – has also caused increased growth in the market. “Overnight, many people around the world began working from home through unsecured wifi connections and relying more and more on the digital world for all their daily needs. This increased the demand for Kape’s product. Kape enables people to continue their business routine and daily life securely. Most consumers around the world connect from their home wifi with much of their digital information exposed, and we are enabling them to create a fully encrypted internet connection that provides them with a level of security and enables them to decide who accesses their data,” he notes.
Personal data is more valuable than ever, says Erlichman. Today, he points out, most hackers are trying to obtain personal data from millions of users. “The frequency of high-profile cyberattacks targeting consumers is growing significantly,” he says.
When Kape started in 2017, it had 145,000 subscribers. Today, the company has more than 6.5 million customers, and revenues have soared from $38 million to over $230 million. Next year’s revenue, says Erlichman, will exceed $620 million. In his view, the company’s success is based on its reliability and trust. “Kape today is in the best position we have ever been,” he says, “We have 6.5 million people that trust us to protect their digital information.” Kape plans to expand its product offerings and offer more tools that increase its customers’ ability to control and protect their digital assets. “The potential is massive,” says Ido Erlichman, “and we are confident that Kape will continue to expand and enjoy the growth of the market in the coming years.”