Company Website: https://bitrezus.com
Company Email: info@bitrezus.com
Employees: 3
Funding State: Bootstrapped
Industries
- Security
Technology
- AI
- Blockchain
- Hardware
- IoT
Business Model
- B2B
- B2G
Revenue Model
- Licencing
- SaaS
Funding Sources
- Grant
- Self
About
Bitrezus was established on November 2021 and became an ESA BIC incubatee on April 2022 to develop ASTROPLEDGE - a cybersecurity solution to help reduce the risk of cyberattacks for the space industry using state-of-the-art tech stack (blockchain, smart contracts, AI). The cofounding team has strong entrepreneurial passion that share the same strategic vision for the company. Our team has a combined extensive and broad experience, that always works together to solve problems smoothly and effectively. Dr. Konstantinos Antonakopoulos (KA), CEO and cofounder, has 23+ years of experience in Principal/Chief positions in the Finance, Oil & Gas, Transportation, and Space industry serving the Government, Academia and private sectors. KA holds a PhD in Evolutionary System and Artificial Intelligence, Certificate in Space Engineering and Science from ISU (SSP09) at NASA ARC and is a recent graduate from Antler Launch Academy. Konstantinos Sotiropoulos (KS), CTO and cofounder, has 25+ years of experience in the IT industry. He has been leading IT departments internationally, mainly dedicated to the Software, Retail, Oil & Gas, Blockchain and Fintech sectors. As CIO / Deputy CTO at Credits LTD, successfully led a team of 100+ developers in Moscow, delivering the "Fast Credits Blockchain & Smart Contracts" protocol (credits.com) on time and on budget.
Solution & Product
Satellite systems were not designed with security in mind. They have weak encryption and use legacy systems that are not easily patched or updated. And some of the navigation protocols are broken — one can build systems that spoof some of those protocols and it can be done so with a few thousand dollars of investment. Traditional IT security solutions don’t protect the OT layers that satellites rely on. These security lapses make satellites vulnerable to hacking. Based on reports, a cyber-attack on the Global Positioning System alone could cost the U.S. $1 billion a day. Our solution helps the space industry reduce the risks of cyber-attacks of their space assets, terrestrial infrastructure and data payloads enabling secure management, real-time opcode consensus, and smart governance in hybrid, no-trust environment. The Astropledge product is comprised of two parts: Part A: the permissioned private blockchain network and the software to be installed on ground infrastructure with the purpose of validating critical commands sent to the space asset. The software will also be responsible for validating command logs from existing space assets in-orbit and be able to verify potential “unknown” or critical commands, by comparing those commands with existing oracles in the blockchain network, and Part B: the embedded HW - basically a blockchain light-node integrated into the space asset, responsible for the local copy of the blockchain ledger and act as an authorized and trusted peer
Innovation & Scalability
Our solution’s unfair advantage is the blockchain technology, smart contracts, and light-node implementation for the space assets, together with the self-healing properties, provide enhanced security layer and impeccable governance models in a critical, no-trust environment. We are focusing on LEO cubesats and satellite constellations where mission operations and services are different and demand rapid decision making in a rather automated environment. In addition our solution is satellite- and manufacturer-agnostic and can easily be adapted in different critical industries, such as, grid, energy, oil & gas, maritime, etc.
Traction & achievements
- November 2021. Bitrezus PC company was established. Applied to Space Hubs Network, a Space pre-accelerator program (spacehubs.network). - April 2022. ESA BIC incubation. Customer validation and requirements gathering. - Jun 2022. Full members of the Hellenic Association of Space Industry (H-ASI) (https://www.hellenic-asi.org/melh). Astropledge Demo and architecture design. Vivatech 2022 and CASSINI matchmaking. Plan for flight heritage with launch vendor. - Sept 2022. Prototype development started. Planned paylod launch mid-2023. - Nov 2022. Top10 space startups at Space2Business. In-orbit validation proposals to ESA. - Jan 2023. Started fundraising with VCs
Team & Why Us
The development of Astropledge software (part A) is the main focus of our R&D Strategy and we have planned a series of development releases during the software lifecycle before the final release. Our intention is to build the preSales release together with an anchor client (e.g., Hellas Sat) in order to demonstrate real-life business workflows with minimum functionality (MVP) Q4 2023. Reach market get first clients already in Q1 2024. The Beta version is expected to be released in Q3 2024 which is the first full functional stable version of Astropledge to reach the market and begin comprehensive sales campaigns and start getting customers traction. Final release of Astropledge software solution is planned for Q1 2025 as we enter the Scale-up phase and expand in other markets.
Funding Needs
The Ask: 1,2M euros preseed for fully functional prototype (TRL7) and go to market in 1 year. Breakdown: Development costs 75%, Business development 10%, Laboratory/R&D: 10%, Marketing 5%. Breakeven point in Q3 Y3. Market penetration target 0,88% in Y5. Y5 Revenues of 3.8M euros with 1.68M EBITDA, 44% EBITDA margin Annualized ROI of approximately 13.5% in Y5.
We help the Space industry reduce the risk of cyberattacks for resilient and cyber-proof operations