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Fall Batch ’24 — Lowkey: Transforming secure messaging for defense and beyond

27.1.2025 Yleinen

We introduce one of our Fall Batch ’24 companies – Lowkey, a transformative secure messaging platform. The app was founded by Vili Väänänen, a Finnish reserve lieutenant and serial entrepreneur with experience building five networking apps for the U.S. market. Drawing from his military background and technological expertise, Väänänen established Lowkey to address critical communication challenges in defense and government sectors.

Founder’s vision

Lowkey was founded by Vili Väänänen, a Finnish reserve lieutenant and serial entrepreneur who previously built five networking apps for the U.S. market. His experience in military and technological know-how underpins Lowkey’s mission: to provide secure, sovereign messaging for defense, military, and government sectors.

During the military training in 2014, Vili witnessed firsthand how traditional communication methods consistently failed during military training, leading soldiers to rely heavily on public apps like WhatsApp for delivering mission-critical messages. This dangerous dependency revealed a major gap in secure and reliable communication tools for defense applications.

The vision sharpened further during global conflicts, where Ukrainian soldiers and authorities use insecure public messaging apps like Telegram for both operational and personal communication, exposing sensitive data to interception and exploitation.

The problem Lowkey is solving

Global defense, government, and other high-stakes sectors lack secure, data-sovereign communication platforms. Current approaches often involve a mix of public apps, leading to disjointed and vulnerable communication chains.

For example, during crisis management, the Estlink incident in Finland demonstrated the challenges of using fragmented platforms—emails, SMS, Signal, and WhatsApp. Governments need an integrated, secure solution to avoid similar inefficiencies in critical situations.

Sovereign nations must have complete control over their communication infrastructure. Relying on third-party apps puts sensitive operations at risk, potentially compromising national security.

Lowkey’s offering

Lowkey Gov offers a secure messaging platform built specifically for defense and government organizations. Core features include:

  • Quantum-resistant end-to-end encryption.
  • Zero-Trust architecture for uncompromising security.
  • Customizable deployment: Seamlessly integrates with on-premise or cloud-hosted infrastructures.
  • Cross-platform accessibility: Web and mobile compatibility ensures operational flexibility.

Unlike mainstream messaging platforms, Lowkey Gov provides:

1. Local data sovereignty: Governments retain full control over their data, aligning with national security and regulatory demands.

2. Customizability: Built to integrate into existing systems without compromising functionality or security.

3. Future-ready security: Engineered to withstand advanced threats, including those posed by quantum computing.

Market momentum & global expansion

The global market for secure communication is projected to reach $150 billion by 2030, driven by the increasing need for data sovereignty in high-risk industries like defense, government, finance, and healthcare.

Our traction to date includes:

  • 50,000 users in the U.S. on our B2C messaging app, Lowkey.
  • Messaging integrations sold to two gaming companies, reaching 40 million users globally.

What’s ahead for Lowkey

1. Launching a new, more performant B2C Lowkey app in Europe in Q1 2025.

2. Expanding into Nordic and Baltic defense markets through pilot programs with Lowkey Gov.

3. Introducing video/audio call features for enterprise and government clients.

4. Building a compliance and auditing messenger to support finance market organizations, which have been struggling with SEC fines exceeding $3 billion over the last two years due to failures in auditing client conversations when using mainstream messaging solutions.

Contact the company at vili@lowkeychat.com or visit lowkeychatgov.com to learn more about their solutions.