UAE NextGen FDI programme spurs record growth for cybersecurity firm ZENDATA
Company has generated $20 million in revenue in the UAE in 2024
Abu Dhabi: ZENDATA, a provider of cybersecurity products and services, has enjoyed a year of record growth since joining the UAE’s NextGen FDI programme in January, 2024, during which time it has generated more than $20 million in revenue in the UAE, expanded its senior leadership team and opened a new office in the capital, Abu Dhabi.
ZENDATA has reported that their expanded UAE operations have delivered contracts to clients in the US, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Oman as well as the UAE. It projects that the new Abu Dhabi office, which opened in early December, will deliver $10 million in contracts by the middle of 2025, underlining the company’s credibility in the space and quality of the clients they have been able to assist with their threat intelligence and threat resilience capabilities.
The leadership team has been bolstered with the appointment of Craig Jones, former Director of Cybercrime at Interpol, and Mark Barwinsky, former Global Head of Security Operations Centre at UBS with 12 years at the National Security Agency in the US, to senior advisor roles.
In September, they onboarded 20-year sector veteran Felipe Castro as Chief Information Security Officer at their Abu Dhabi operation, while Gonzalo Besares, former military intelligence officer with extensive experience in threat intelligence, cybersecurity and risk management, was named as the head of the global Threat Intelligence Unit.
Their footprint in the wider GCC was also confirmed with a $35 million, five-year partnership with Qatari conglomerate Salam Technology, which will provide state-of-the-art cyber tools and skillsets to their clients across the Gulf.
Steven Meyer, CEO of ZENDATA, said: “We were confident of our ability to leverage the many opportunities available in – and from – the UAE. The last year, however, has exceeded all our expectations, and is a testament to the support we have received through the Nextgen FDI initiative and also to the maturity of the region’s client base. There is a clear recognition of the various threat scenarios that they face and the need to proactively engage the right partners, and deploy the right technology solutions, to keep them, their people and their data secure. With our new office and full dedicated Security Office Centre in Abu Dhabi, and with our new leadership team in place, we can only see further successes and milestones ahead.”
ZENDATA is a cybersecurity leader that is based in Switzerland. The company’s range of managed services and products protect people, corporations, organisations and governments from the ever-evolving threat of cyberattacks. The Middle East is ranked second behind the US for having the highest average cost-per-data breach at over $8 million.
The NextGen FDI initiative, which was launched by the Ministry of Economy in 2022, enables companies in future-focused industries to either establish or expand operations in the UAE through a range of support services and networking opportunities as part of the nation’s ambitions to accelerate its economic diversification efforts.