IT security firm protecting contact centre staff from cyber attacks and abuse

Velona Systems, which takes its name from the ancient Greek word for needle, is an IT security provider based in Douglas, Co Cork.

Founded in 2016 by John Daly and Tony Friar, the company has raised €750,000 to date and has six staff. The business provides software aimed at contact centre staff to protect them from cyber attacks.

“We stop staff getting abused and stop their time being wasted. Our software detects attacks and can separate valid callers from attackers. We have a client that runs marketing campaigns which use a contact centre staff of over 150 people. They were getting thousands of invalid calls every day,” Daly told the Business Post.

“Some of them were getting ‘Rickrolled’, with music playing, others were bots pretending to be elderly people that were hard of hearing. The most insidious was racial and sexual abuse of the staff. We put a stop to all that.”

The idea to start the company grew out of challenges Friar and Daly faced in a previous business venture.

“We had a telecommunications business in Belgium that needed some structure. We were servicing English speakers that work with the EU, there’s an awful lot of them when you factor in the NGOs,” Daly said.

“We learnt when we had that business that when you get attacked, you’re on your own.”

Velona started focusing on clients in Britain but has grown into the US and Middle East markets as well. While the business has taken on seed investment, Daly said his goal is to develop as much organic growth as possible.

“Our preference, where possible, is to grow organically. If we get to the stage where we really want to push something out, then it would make sense to seek more investment.”

That being said, he is extremely appreciative of how Enterprise Ireland has aided Velona in its growth.

“Enterprise Ireland have been far more than simply just an investor, they’ve provided mentoring and a lot of other support. We’ve received leadership development supports, including putting us on the Founders Forum, and they hosted us as part of the Ireland pavilion at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress in February 2018,” he said.

“They are a great support on the market research side, and their regional network of development agents in the Middle East and USA is a very valuable resource.”

Daly said the business wants to continue to develop its Call Defender product to keep protecting a broader range of call centre workers through automation.

“We want to continue building in the US and the Middle East. There are over 50 million toll-free numbers in the US alone,” he said.

“We get to actually hear how they behave when they break through and it’s very tough knowing someone is in a relatively low-paying job and being harassed because someone doesn’t like their employer.”

This Making it Work article is produced in partnership with Enterprise Ireland