There are some people out there who need a smartphone, but can’t trust normal security measures like Samsung’s Knox and Android’s built-in encryption, such as high-ranking executives and world leaders. A new startup, with ties to both Britain and Israel, is entering the super-secure, super high-end smartphone market. After a landmark fundraising seed round that ended up netting the firm about $72 million, Sirin Labs AG has announced that they will be joining the likes of Silent Circle and Sikur in a space that’s not terribly crowded. The space in question is highly specialized smartphones with hardware and software security features that put them more than a few notches above your run of the mill Samsung and Apple devices when it comes to enterprise-level security.
Co-Founder Moshe Hogeg spoke about the company’s entry into the secure smartphone market, saying that it incorporates “almost military-grade security”, including elements that may not be “commercially available”, giving it an edge over other phones in security that can only be matched by a similar product. The idea came from investor Kenges Rakishev’s phone being hacked, at which point he approached Hogeg asking about a more secure smartphone solution. After beginning to work on the idea, Hogeg received funding from Kenges Rakishev, as well as from Chinese social network Renren and Hogeg’s own investment capital firm, Singulariteam. Hogeg said of the market at the time, “There were no good solutions that combined high-end technologies with maximum security,”.
The phone itself is slated to cost somewhere in the area of $20,000 though a bit south of that particular figure. All that’s been said about it thus far, aside from the above, is that it will run an Android-based custom OS and use technology that’s two or three years ahead of commercial availability. So far, no exact date for the phone’s release has been given, but Hogeg did say that Sirin’s first store would be opening up in the Mayfair district of London at some point in May, pointing to the possibility of a release at the same time as said store’s opening, though, obviously, nothing is set in stone at this point.