Public Relations

Asgents Connected Car Security Partner, Upstream, Closes
Series B Investment Round from Automobile Manufacturers
-Asgent continues with indirect investment-

October 23, 2019
Asgent, Inc.
(JASDAQ: 4288)

  Asgent, Inc. (JASDAQ: 4288, President & CEO: Takahiro Sugimoto, located in Chuo-ku, Tokyo), a pioneer in network security, announces that its connected car security partner Upstream Security Ltd. (CEO & Co-Founder: Yoav Levy, located in Israel) has closed $30 million in series B round investment on October 21st from an investment group including Renault Ventures, Volvo Group, Hyundai Motors among others, bring the total investment amount to $41 million.

[Upstream]
  Upstream is a cyber security solution designed to protect connected cars from cyber-attacks and misuse. Various data sent from vehicles or drivers’ mobile phones to servers is collected, the data is normalized and the AI-assisted analysis is performed. As a result, when a vehicle is discovered to be in a state differing from the norm, the SOC is immediately notified. The SOC administrator is then able to discover the vehicle behaving abnormally from amongst multiple vehicles and take action.
  Upstream co-founder and CEO, Yoav Levy, made the following comment. "This first of its kind investor syndicate, which includes some of the most important smart mobility companies in the world, is a testament to the severity of the problem the industry is tackling and a ringing endorsement of Upstreams technology and the progress our team has made. Our mission is to protect every connected vehicle and smart mobility service on the planet - the completion of our funding is perfectly timed to meet the growing demand for our data driven cloud-based platform, providing our customers with the capabilities they need to accomplish this vitally important task."

[Investor Comments]

Renault Ventures Direct Investments Director Christian Noske

We were impressed by Upstreams mature platform and exciting customer traction, which is why we made the investment. Upstreams world-class team built a truly unique cloud-based automotive cybersecurity model that is highly scalable with a visionary technical approach that solves a growing problem in the mobility industry.

Volvo Group Investment Director David Hanngren

Securing our customers' connected vehicles is always top of mind for Volvo. We have chosen to invest in Upstream because they have a great vision for addressing this unique sector, an impressive management team and serious depth in both automotive domain expertise and cybersecurity.

Hyundai Motors Open Innovation Investment Group VP Yunseong Hwang

Security is the core element of connected vehicle which we cannot compromise. Upstream has demonstrated how its optimized security technology can strengthen vehicle security. We believe that Upstream is leading the innovation in security of connected vehicle.

Nationwide Venture Capital Team Leader Erik Ross

Nationwide understands that the safety and security of connected vehicles go hand-in-hand. As technology in vehicles becomes even more sophisticated, security is a critical building block and Upstreams solution focuses on protecting our members' in the evolving mobility ecosystem.

[Future developments]
Asgent will continue to perform awareness-raising activities and provide solutions in collaboration with Upstream in the Japanese market to maintain security in the connected car society that will surely visit upon us soon.

Upstream press release: https://www.upstream.auto/news/round-b-pr/

*Company and product names are the trademarks or registered trademark of the respective companies.