The team behind Ottawa cybersecurity startup NtangledState has big ambitions for the future, including breaking into the European market.
The team behind Ottawa cybersecurity startup NtangledState has big ambitions for the future, including breaking into the European market.
Founded by CEO Sasikaran Selvendran, the company helps businesses manage their digital security and public key infrastructure (PKI) with automation tools such as AI.
“In a URL, when you see https, the S stands for security,” Ranjith Mathew, global director for corporate relations, told OBJ on Friday. “You get this S from companies that are creating (secure sockets layer) and (transport layer security) certificates.”
The SSL and TLS certificates authenticate the website and encrypt the connection, preventing data breaching. But Mathew said each certificate is only valid for about a year, with Google recently announcing that certificate validity will be reduced significantly, requiring renewal quarterly.
NtangledState uses AI to help companies automate the renewal process and improve their digital security management. Still in its early days, it is already looking beyond Canada’s borders in pursuit of international growth, while introducing features like blockchain integration, AI agents, and post-quantum cryptography.
In this instalment of Top of Mind in Tech, Selvendran and Mathew talk about how they got started, the importance of automation in cybersecurity management, and how they’re breaking into the European market.
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
How did things begin for NtangledState?
Selvendran: Mathew and I met nine years back. I did about 20 years in the cybertech industry before the name cybersecurity came around. When I came to Canada, I had plans already but I failed over 1,000 times – I can’t count. But if you fail enough times, you start to see a pattern.
I had the opportunity (to work in the tech industry) and then I jumped into cybersecurity, which is the basis for this product. I worked with Intel, I worked with North American universities, you name it. Over the years, you speak to clients and you see the pain points and they’re willing to pay you (to fix it). That’s a winning product.
It was a really hard start but we got through it with persistence and tenacity and the help of people like angel investors and we were finally successful. The product launches (at the end of the month).
Why is your strategy to go global?
Selvendran: I want to create something that’s going to be useful for people in Canada and create more jobs. But I want to create something that is beneficial for all people because I’ve been there. I’ve worked in the industry, I know how hard it is.
So we have a couple of strategies in mind. I would like to try and implement and be successful at the same time. I want us to be successful globally and put ourselves and Canada on the map as the technology leader in the world.
This month and next month are crucial for us. We aim to reach (a valuation) of at least $100 million in three years after the product release. That’s our strategy.
Why are digital certificates a big deal for businesses?
Mathew: The engineers who are purchasing, renewing, managing these certificates, now they have to do this four times a year. The challenge is that most enterprises are managing it manually. We are in a world where everyone is talking about AI automation. Can you imagine, there are big companies that we know that are managing 250,000 digital certificates manually. What that means is that there’s a possibility of the human behind the system going on vacation or forgetting to renew. Every time you see an outage happen or a cyber-attack happen, behind that is a digital certificate or authentication broken. Without a digital certificate, companies cannot survive.
I was at a cybersecurity meeting this morning and there were a lot of academics there. The challenge we are facing is that in a room full of cybersecurity people, I ask if there's anybody from the public key infrastructure business and there’s hardly one or two people. When I ask if anyone knows what PKI is, they’ll say, sorry, I’m in cybersecurity but I don’t know about PKI.
Mostly, they are (managing PKI) manually. That’s the brilliance here. Automation means no human touch required. Buying from the certificate authorities, everything is seamless without any human touch, taken care of by the system. That means we are eliminating human error.
What has the process been like trying to break into the European market?
Mathew: Selvendran mentioned that, in six months' time, you’ll be hearing a lot about us and the reason we’re saying that is because last February we had an opportunity to visit Europe. We went to the Netherlands and Latvia and we got a very warm welcome from both countries. Selvendran was introduced by the embassy of Canada to Latvia as the most innovative tech startup from Canada. He did a presentation about Canada and Ottawa and our company to a room full of investors and tech enthusiasts. That message went to the Latvian minister of defence, who came to meet with Selvendran for 30 minutes.
The outcome of that was we got a call from the Latvian embassy saying (they) had delegates coming (to Canada) and they wanted to arrange a meeting. It was the director general of cybersecurity for the National Defence of Latvia. He’d come to Canada to meet with some of our ministers but, after that, there were only two meetings on his schedule: one with the Canadian government and one with Selvendran.
That is now leading to multiple discussions with the Latvian government. So we are so excited that, in six months’ time, you will see us having an office in Latvia.
A lot of companies are diversifying internationally due to trade tensions with the U.S. What drove your decision to look toward Europe?
Selvendran:
I believe it was last year when the (now former) White House national security adviser (Carole House) came to Toronto for a meeting and Mathew was there. We had a chat with her and she said, this is great and invited us (to the U.S.). Then, things happened. But next to her had been (Ilze Lacgalve, Head of the Latvian Investment and Development Agency) who said, ‘Okay, why don’t you come to Latvia?’ She was really amazing and that’s how we started (our international expansion plans).
We stopped over in the Netherlands and we will likely have another office there as well. We are looking strategically at dividing into regions, like northern Europe and southern Europe. Our strategy is that we need to expand globally. First, we go to Europe, then North America, and then other parts of the world like the Middle East.
We started working before we started to develop the product because, otherwise, after a product, it’s already too late. If you want to hit the mark, you have to set your goals and achieve them. For us, this is not our first rodeo. To reach a valuation of $100 million in three years, how do you do it? It’s easy to talk but we are good at execution. Now we’re going to Latvia, we had a couple clients, we’re talking to others. We’re looking at NATO as well. We have contacts all over the world.
What advice do you have for businesses trying to make connections overseas?
Selvendran:
Europe is beautiful. Our first event, it was amazing and very welcoming. For others, don’t lose hope. Never give up, have tenacity. And I would say be adaptive and learn from the failures. I heard this quote, success is one per cent talent and 99 per cent persistence, so be persistent. You need to be able to take whatever comes and turn it into something that works for you. 
