WISeKey Emerges as Leading IoT Company in Terms of Revenue Amongst Swiss Listed Companies; Large Global Footprint with More than 1.2 Billion Deployed IoT VaultIC Chips in Virtually all IoT Sectors

WISeKey Emerges as Leading IoT Company in Terms of Revenue Amongst Swiss Listed Companies; Large Global Footprint with More than 1.2 Billion Deployed IoT VaultIC Chips in Virtually all IoT Sectors

• Q1 2019 Cybersecurity/IoT revenues of $8.1 million

• Continued growth in the IoT market is backed by a solid 3-year revenue pipeline of over $250 million, growing at CAGR of 35%  
• Substantially improved financial position to support Cybersecurity/IoT expansion and other business initiatives, including potential acquisitions
  • Cash and restricted cash of $25.4 million at March 31, 2019, an increase of 151% from $10.1 million at March 31, 2018
  • Generated $45 million total cash proceeds from the sale of QuoVadis SSL and PKI businesses in early 2019
  • WISeKey’s subsidiary WISeCoin AG raised an initial $7 million on a pre-STO round of investment and convertible debt

ZUG, GENEVA – May 7, 2019 – WISeKey International Holding Ltd (“WISeKey”) (SIX: WIHN), a leading global cybersecurity, Blockchain and IoT company has emerged in only 3 years since its listing on the Swiss Stock Exchange as one of the largest IoT listed companies in Switzerland generating FY 2018 revenue of $34.3 million from continuing operations, including $29.4 million from the Cybersecurity/IoT segment.   

In 2019, the Company further expanded its Cybersecurity/IoT business by increasing its geographic footprint and client base, and for the Q1 2019 this segment generated revenues of $8.1 million.  This growth which is expected to continue in the coming years, is backed by a solid 3-year Cybersecurity/IoT revenue pipeline of over $250 million.  

This is a substantial achievement, particularly when other major Swiss listed security technology companies deploying IoT solutions had revenues as low as USD 2.0 million reflecting their early development stage in this sector.

As a Swiss high-growth IoT company, WISeKey plays a critical role in supporting the country’s 4^th Industrial Revolution strategy and it is a valuable asset for the country as it continues to maintain its technology independence and neutrality in the global markets.

The IoT revenue generated by WISeKey should be considered as premium revenue of strategic relevance and value within the Swiss economy. Many organizations that have invested in IoT deployments, have yet to derive any significant revenue from their solutions as business models are changing from transactional to collaborative while transactions and evolving from simple one-off payments to complex alternatives of usage-based billing.

WISeKey’s global expansion, particularly in North America, is built on a clear vision and business strategy and driven by unique and comprehensive offerings able to generate revenue from IoT devices, cybersecurity services, data analysis and more importantly our Trusted Ecosystem and Vertical Platforms.

As we move forward and the IoT becomes the Internet of Everything (IoE), the number of connected devices and objects, all capable of collecting and transmitting data over the internet, are rapidly increasing and the WISeKey Vertical Platform becomes critical to secure these environments. Consequently, our ability to monetize our solutions, services, Blockchain, AI and the data produced by these connected devices will continue to grow. The total number of IoT connected devices and objects is expected to grow from $6 billion in 2015 to $27 billion in 2025, all of them requiring the type of secure chips and software offered by WISeKey to secure such connections. Global spending on IoT/IoE technology-based services, is now expected to reach $3 trillion by 2025.

The IoT will live up to its promise only if the connected devices, the data they generate, the business applications that control these devices and the services around them, can be fully secured and trusted.  In today’s environment, where cyberattacks have become more common and increasingly sophisticated, there is an urgent need to fundamentally rethink the Security Stack for the IoT cloud. IoT-enabled services and products will generate vast amounts of data which, when well-analyzed, will be very valuable to government organizations, product manufactures, corporations and end-users. This revenue model relies on data trust and on IoT Edge Device control. Users can take advantage of this unique solution in the market by remotely being able to uniquely identify and control an IoT Edge Device (activation/deactivation/revocation), securely provision (point to point secure update) the IoT Edge Device credentials and secure the messages in motion between Edge Devices and Business Applications.

During 2018, among its new product launches, WISeKey introduced the new NanoSeal Semiconductors product family and architecture for consumer products authentication and traceability. Built around a robust proprietary cryptographic algorithm for data protection and digital signature, a 2kbit long life secure EEPROM non-volatile memory with multiple independent security areas and contacts or NFC based communication interfaces, this versatile architecture can be attached to any product that needs to be protected and tracked including sports apparel, drone battery packs, e-cigarettes refills, parcels, medicines and high-tech accessories, creating a completely new market for the company. 

The rapid growth of the number of connected IoT devices, as well as people’s dependence on them for personal and business needs, created opportunities for hackers to alter or manipulate digital footprints.  We believe that our integrated products provide the most comprehensive solution to fill these gaps in cybersecurity and data protection. The core of WISeKey’s Vertical Trusted Platform is based on our Cybersecurity SaaS business, also known as managed PKI services, and on our Semiconductor chips.

To take advantage of the vast IoT opportunities, WISekey is contemplating new acquisitions of companies with strong serialization ecosystems (RFID and Tags). Such acquisitions will allow WISeKey to further expand the number of connected objects into the WISeKey PKI and IoT platform integrating the authentication process with the WISeKey Semiconductors tags based on our NanoSeal and VaultIC154 NFC secure element. These tags, when tapped by an NFC enabled phone, allow users to securely authenticate, track, and confirm the identity of the product on a blockchain ledger. The result will empower brands to increase their cybersecurity and create new, unique consumer engagement opportunities utilizing NFC microchip technology and PKI.

WISeKey’s continued growth in the Cybersecurity/IoT market is backed by a solid revenue pipeline of over $250 million for the next 3 years, growing at CAGR of 35%. Future IoT revenue will benefit from: 

• Higher revenue from the ISTANA platform with already strategic revenue wins in the German and Chinese markets.
• Monetization of the WISeKey Blockchain Platform and related services.
• Higher revenues from the new Anti-Illicit Trade Technology WISeAuthentic now expanding from luxury products to other sectors.
• Untapped potential synergies with global organizations thanks to a partnership agreement with Digicert Inc. to explore common opportunities in the IoT market, using our combined products to enhance mutual offerings.

• Significantly expanded sales force to take advantage of the higher demand for strong security, authentication, brand protection and anti-counterfeiting services as Cybersecurity / IoT becomes more pervasive for segments such as connected devices, connected cars, luxury products, pharmaceuticals and banking/financial sector.
• Further development of the WISeKey Foresight platform that will use APIs and keys generated on VaultIC IoT chip sets as the basis for Cybersecurity IoT services unlocking new features of the silicon, what the WISeKey calls Chip as a Service.
• Investment in our core IoT business with new innovative products and solutions to further reinforce our position as a major player offering secured and trusted Blockchain architectures.

About WISeKey
WISeKey (SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems for people and objects using Blockchain, AI and IoT respecting the Human as the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey Microprocessors Secures the pervasive computing shaping today’s Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.5 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones, crypto tokens etc.).  WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens.

Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKey’s Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust (“RoT”) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.

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