Dust Mobile, the first international secure mobile network operator, raises €3M from ACE Management and Omnes

ACE, through its Brienne III cybersecurity fund, and Omnes, the deep tech specialist, lead this first round of funding together.

Dust Mobile, an innovative “secure-by-design” mobile network operator, has raised an initial €3 million to launch its commercial deployment. Dust Mobile aims to become the European leader in secure mobile communications with an offer that meets the growing need for protection against cyber threats.

Founded by Jean Michel Henrard and François d’Ormesson in mid-2017, Dust Mobile sells secure proprietary SIM cards – compatible with all smartphones and connected objects – combined with a fully fledged secured mobile communications plan. This offer provides not only full voice, SMS and data communications encryption, but also protects against attacks on cellular network signalling protocols or SIM cards  (studies show that 53% of illegal attempts to intercept voice, SMS and mobile data communications are successful, 75% of smartphones can be located without the knowledge of their owners, and 9 out of 10 SMSs can be intercepted).

With this innovative technology, Dust Mobile is the only mobile operator dedicated to securing critical mobile communications  This service is also priced competitively with global coverage (214 countries and territories). Dust Mobile provides a transparent, user-friendly secured solution while guaranteeing the same quality of service as traditional operators. Dust Mobile has been registered with ARCEP (France) and BIPT (Belgium) since September 2017.

Positioned in the mobile communications security market, the company plans to enter a hyper-growth phase during which the ability of its technical solution to scale up will be a major asset to establish itself as a European leader.

“Our ambition is to protect our users from cyber threats and weaknesses intrinsic to mobile networks. We support both private companies and public organisations with significant international security needs, as well as industrial IoT developers with a need for connectivity combining high security with optimal services”, explains Jean Michel Henrard, Chairman and Founder of Dust Mobile. “With this fundraising, Dust Mobile will be able to capitalise on its technological edge and start its international commercial roll-out.”

“The security of mobile networks and IoT is a major issue given the exponential increase in attacks, and Dust Mobile is now offering an innovative, technically secure, user-friendly and competitive solution, removing the usual obstacles to users adopting security solutions. We are very happy to be supporting this highly promising company”, say Quentin Besnard and Stéphanie Hillard, who led this investment for ACE Management.

“The security of critical mobile communications is a problem well known to experts in the field. 83% of (public and private) organisations report being vulnerable to attacks via mobile. Thanks to Jean Michel Henrard’s experience and vision, he has been able to anticipate the needs of companies that are now faced with all kinds of attacks aimed at intercepting and/or altering their communications. The Dust Mobile team has already managed to build a mobile operator specialising in cybersecurity without any funding. We are very proud to be supporting them for a future commercial success”, says Marc Gasser, who is managing the deal for Omnes.