Thought Leaders in Cyber Security: Datablink CEO Alexandre Cagnoni (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: From a revenue point of view, where are you? What kind of revenue and growth rate are you trying to raise money on?

Alexandre Cagnoni: Our revenue in 2016 was $7.5 million. We’re seeing a growth of approximately 30% year per year. I think if we get investment, we can accelerate this over 60% and reach some markets that today we’re not reaching. For example, we’re not doing anything in Europe. We have some conversations with potential partners but we don’t have activities in Europe. We don’t have too many activities now in the US. We believe that once we have everything set up here in the US, we’re going to be able to raise funding and then go to the other markets and even invest more in the US, which I think is a huge market. This year will be a year of planning and structuring the company.

Sramana Mitra: What do you see as open problems in your space right now where you could recommend entrepreneurs who are looking for new problems to solve?

Alexandre Cagnoni: Are you talking more about fraud prevention or cyber security in general?

Sramana Mitra: I’d like to get your opinion on fraud prevention and fraud detection.

Alexandre Cagnoni: The credit cards, especially, has always been a big trend and big nightmare for the insurers and banks, and for the users as well. How many times has your bank switched your credit card because it was possibly cloned? It’s not the cost of the card itself but the cost of not being able to use your credit card. When I was in Indonesia, I couldn’t use it for a week. They cancelled it. I had to use another one. We see that this will grow really fast in the US now that they’re putting a chip on the card.

In Brazil for example, we had a very strong fraud within the US of credit card because of magnetic stripe cloning. This was early 2000. In 2003, we started to change all the credit cards and debit cards to chip-based cards. What happened? Most of the fraud migrated to the e-commerce purchases where you don’t need to have your card. I see this as the big trend. It’s not only about how you identify if this is a possible fraud attempt. It’s how you get more assurance.

How can you make it easier for the user as well? Suppose I’m visiting Indonesia and trying to use my credit card. When they see that there’s a potential fraud risk, they can send a message to my phone to verify it. I would just click yes and that’s it. That would have solved my problem. The bank would have made more money because I would be using their card instead of another card. This will be a big issue. Also, wire transfers are always a big thing.

There’s a fraud called manning the browser. This will continue happening. The banks are trying to detect those types of attacks. This is the biggest thing about our company. We have a proven capability of avoiding frauds and high-risk transactions. New entrepreneurs have to constantly think about how they can help those companies.

Sramana Mitra: Great. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 5 in the series : Thought Leaders in Cyber Security: Datablink CEO Alexandre Cagnoni
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