International reputation
German auto giant buys Waterloo security startup
KITCHENER — A subsidiary of a German automotive giant working on the security of embedded systems has acquired Waterloo startup TrustPoint Innovation.
ETAS Embedded Systems Canada, which moved into the Breithaupt Block in downtown Kitchener last June, announced Wednesday it is buying TrustPoint, pending approval by antitrust authorities.
ETAS, a subsidiary of Bosch Group, provides automotive customers with products and services that focus on calibration, testing and security, and custom engineering for the development of embedded systems.
It is acquiring TrustPoint because of the startup’s expertise in secure machine-tomachine communication for the Internet of Things. As TrustPoint was developing technology for collision avoidance systems in cars, it came across a unique way of identifying consumer goods with inexpensive electronic tags to thwart counterfeiting.
“I am really excited to start working on a day-to-day basis with the TrustPoint team,” said David MacFarlane, general manager of the local ETAS office.
TrustPoint, which employs 26 people, developed an international reputation for building tiny, smart technology that is placed within larger systems. ETAS believes its technology and experience are ideally suited for the world of connected and autonomous vehicles.
“They have expertise in constrained devices and automotive security, and they also focus on machine-to-machine communication,” said MacFarlane.
Later this year, the ETAS team in Kitchener and TrustPoint team in Waterloo will move into a larger office somewhere in the region. “We are definitely staying local,” said MacFarlane.
With the acquisition of TrustPoint, the ETAS staff complement will grow to about 30. MacFarlane expects to employ about 100 people within five years.
MacFarlane formerly worked in BlackBerry’s security department, eventually heading its global cybersecurity team. In that position, he got to know Scott Vanstone and his wife, Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, who founded TrustPoint in 2012 and previously worked at BlackBerry.
Scott, who died in 2014, was a former professor at the University of Waterloo, and the co-founder of Certicom, a cryptography company acquired by BlackBerry in 2009.
“When I was a graduate student at the University of Waterloo, Scott Vanstone was actually my supervisor. So our paths first crossed about 20 years ago,” MacFarlane said. “So there was a nice, personal connection.”