Coana: From research to business and benefit to society

Coana was founded by three specialists in static analysis, including Professor Anders Møller from the Department of Computer Science at Aarhus University, one of the world's best in his field.

Together with his PhD students, Benjamin Barslev and Martin Torp, Anders Møller founded Coana. In 2022, the team was strengthened by Anders Søndergaard, an experienced startup founder who brought a strong entrepreneurial spirit to the academic team. Today, the team consists of both PhDs and product developers who together develop advanced static analysis technology for software companies.

‘Around 80% of modern software applications today consist of open source components that developers use to quickly build on and develop new solutions. However, this kind of development often involves a need to monitor vulnerabilities and security risks in the open source components used,’ Anders explains and adds:

‘However, current tools for this often generate many irrelevant results that require extensive human resources to filter and assess.’

Based on Anders Møller's research group's work in static analysis, Coana can perform a reachability analysis, which assesses whether a vulnerability is relevant. This means that Coana's tool can determine whether a vulnerability can actually be exploited from the outside - which is only the case for 10-20% of them. Coana's product therefore reduces 80-90% of the noise that software development departments would otherwise have to deal with, allowing them to achieve the same standard of security with just 10-20% of the effort.

Anders Søndergaard, CEO & co-founder in Coana

According to Anders Søndergaard, the combination of academic research and entrepreneurship is one of the keystones of Coana.

‘The most exciting companies emerge when research is put into practice and has the potential to create real change. I consider it exemplary that my co-founders had the courage to explore how their research could make a concrete difference in society. It's an approach that benefits both research and society as a whole. I am proud and excited to be part of tackling major challenges in IT security with new knowledge and innovative solutions,’ he says.

Unique competences and a strong motivation for social good

At Coana, it's the unique combination of research, competences and technology that drives the work forward. ‘We have unique competences and unique research that motivates us to find the maximum impact and create the most value for society,’ says Anders Søndergaard.

They are also aware of how crucial their work is in line with the increasing focus on IT security. ‘We are fortunate that what we do can help protect software applications, which is more important than ever in the escalating development of IT security. This gives us a clear motivation - what we do simply makes sense,’ he explains. Coana's mission is therefore both to capitalise on their cutting-edge research and to solve real and pressing problems in cybersecurity.

Coana benefits from INCUBA's strong tech community and close connection to IT research

Coana is not alone in developing solutions for cybersecurity. The company has just become part of INCUBA Katrinebjerg together with several other IT players. Coana chose INCUBA as its base because of the strong tech environment and attractive facilities that provide direct access to a strong network of IT companies and the research community. The close collaboration with the research community was a big win for Coana, especially with offices just 50 metres from Anders Møller's office at the Department of Computer Science.

As Anders Søndergaard puts it: ‘It was an easy decision for us. It's beneficial to share a location with other companies that work in the same way as us and have been through the same challenges in recent years. It gives us perspectives and sparring that we can benefit from, while we can also give back to others who are not quite there yet.’

Coana joins the many other IT and cyber-security companies at INCUBA Katrinebjerg with a domicile in INCUBA's community in INCUBA Next, where their neighbours will include Kanda, Better Collective, Crowdstrike, Kvantify and Partisia. Read more about INCUBA Next here.

Coana attracts international attention with US investment and new customers

It's not just in Denmark and Aarhus that Coana is gaining ground. In January 2024, Coana raised USD 1.6 million in a pre-seed round, equivalent to just under DKK 11 million, from two American venture funds, among others. One of them is Silicon Valley-based Sequioa Capital, which has previously invested in Apple, Google and Instagram. Sequioa Capital led the investment round, joined by Seattle fund Essence VC and a number of business angels.

Coana launched a beta version of its tool in late 2023 and has since gained traction with both small and large organisations looking to effectively manage their data security, including several US customers such as Front, Gather and Watershed. Coana currently consists of eight employees, seven of whom work on the technical development of the product.

Read more about Coana here.