The KU Leuven spin-off Belfort raises five million euros for its technology that can process encrypted data without decryption.
Belfort, a new spin-off from KU Leuven, has developed a hardware accelerator that can perform calculations directly on encrypted data. The company raised five million euros in its first funding round to further develop the technology and bring it into practice. Belfort focuses on organizations that want to process sensitive data without compromising on privacy or security.
Encrypted Processing without Decryption
Belfort’s technology makes it possible to process data without ever decrypting it. This provides better protection for sensitive information against leaks or misuse by servers, cloud providers, or users with privileged access. The concept, known as encrypted compute, thus becomes practically applicable for the first time. Potential applications include fraud detection, genetic analysis, and government applications.
The foundation of Belfort lies in the cryptographic research of KU Leuven’s COSIC research group, led by Professor Ingrid Verbauwhede. Her team spent years investigating how data processing could be intrinsically secured. With Belfort, these insights are now being applied in a real-time system.
5 Million Euros
The initial funding round was led by Vsquared Ventures, with participation from Anagram, Protocol VC, Inovia Capital, and Syndicate One, among others. Several well-known names in the technology sector also invested, including Jeff Dean from Google and investor Naval Ravikant.
With the raised capital, Belfort aims to expand its team, further refine the technology, and support pilots with companies. Additionally, the company is working on developing its own chip, which should make the hardware accelerator more widely applicable.