Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem are you solving?
Kertos: Complying with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) presents companies with major operational challenges. Personal data is scattered across countless systems, the manual effort for the simplest requests (e.g. “Please delete my data”) is enormous, the processes are improvised, error-prone and don’t scale.
Kertos is a no-code SaaS solution that connects an entire company’s infrastructure to manage personal data and fully automate data protection processes. From automating data subject requests to implementing deletion concepts to maintaining processing records – with Kertos, manual data protection processes are a thing of the past. This saves companies time, money, and stress, allowing them to focus on their core business again.
Kertos is “one of the first European solutions in automated data protection”
Munich Startup: But that’s been around for ages!
Kertos: Well, not really. In the US, there are (initial) solution approaches in the field of technical data protection automation. However, these do not comply with EU data protection requirements. Thus, Kertos is one of the first European solutions in the field of automated data protection. Kertos positions itself in the value chain after existing solutions – which are primarily consulting services or documentation solutions – and automates the operational data protection processes within companies.
Munich Startup: What’s your founding story?
Kertos: Kilian is a PhD lawyer and was responsible for operational data protection at various scale-ups (e.g. Home24, Tier Mobility, Gorillas) for almost 10 years. He was the primary victim of manual, improvised processes and increasingly stringent regulatory requirements in the field of data protection.
Alex and Johannes have a long shared R&D background in which they developed dozens of products for large corporations and mid-sized companies. At the time of meeting (mid-2021), Johannes and Alex were leading a software development agency focused on data-driven innovation.
It quickly became clear that the combination of strong expertise in the areas of domain (Kilian), product (Johannes), and tech (Alex) was an ideal mix for this major challenge. But this would not have been possible if the existing employees of the software agency had not also believed in the solution and had not been on board from the start! A big thank you to the team!
“Processing millions of sensitive customer data”
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Kertos: Our challenges certainly align with those of other startups: building a strong team, developing a scalable product, and acquiring the perfect first customers.
The special thing about Kertos is that in the field of data protection automation, we sometimes process millions of sensitive customer data. This requires not only an absolutely data protection-compliant infrastructure, but also high IT security standards. This enables us to handle personal data in a transparent, secure, and error-free manner.
Munich Startup: Where do you want to be in one year, where in five years?
Kertos: In addition to automating data subject rights, we are currently integrating additional features such as implementing deletion concepts, data mapping, creating processing records, and vendor management. Thus, we are developing Kertos into an all-in-one solution for data protection processes.
First, we aim to scale within the EU, thanks to the uniform legal framework of the GDPR. Coming from Germany, the birthplace of data protection and the GDPR as the basis for global data protection guidelines, we have an ideal foundation for further expansion in the future.
Part of the Munich startup scene
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Kertos: Johannes and Alex have long been part of the Munich startup scene and both are closely connected to UnternehmerTUM as one of the drivers of the Munich startup scene. Kilian, who is at home in the Berlin startup scene, was quickly brought on board and Munich as a startup location was therefore always central to us at Kertos. Here we are well networked with many startups and scale-ups from the scene. So we constantly have close exchanges with other founders and support each other on the rollercoaster ride of being an entrepreneur.
Munich Startup: Quick exit or long game?
Kertos: Definitely long game. The combination of B2B SaaS and data protection compliance requires not only a strong product, but also a long-term perspective for sales processes. The good news: once integrated, solutions in this area are not quickly replaced.
