Giving control back to data owners: GFT acquires minority stake in start-up One Creation

Stuttgart, 26 January, 2021 – GFT Technologies and One Creation are announcing that GFT is acquiring a minority stake in the data rights start-up. The two companies are collaborating on technology development and approaching potential clients to help them monetise their data and digital rights while ensuring compliance, control, and security.

Data is the new oil –there is near-universal consensus that gathering and monetising data and digital rights is a crucial factor for the continued success of companies in virtually all industries and sectors. Data is being misused; new data and business insights are growing but there is no safe way to share and monetize these rights beyond the first party that consumes it or in close-ended environments. Enterprises are struggling to provide transparency and automatic consent management to allow for compliance with privacy regulations such as GDPR or to meet Open Banking standards, or just to differentiate their service by providing full transparency and control of data rights to their users.

Many companies struggle to control the access and use of their own data. Organizations’ internal data rights can be violated, which leads to less data sharing. Challenges include ever-more stringent data protection and safety regulations as well as the growing danger of cyber-attacks resulting in data leaks. Equally challenging are technical issues, such as usage transparency of data that is sitting in different databases and being saved in various formats, even within the same organisation.

One Creation has committed itself to solving these issues with their ground-breaking platform, which was co-developed by GFT. The platform utilises Daml smart contract technology, created by Digital Asset. Prospects for the young company are bright: 7.5 septillion gigabytes of data are generated every single day. Protecting the digital rights of this data is a massive target market* and One Creation is already conducting several pilot projects with Fortune 100 early adopters.

“One Creation is meeting an unfulfilled demand for an enterprise platform-as-a-service that allows companies to regain control, monetise, and seamlessly distribute data and digital rights through a decentralised secure data supply chain,” added Zohar Hod, CEO of One Creation. “We give control over data and rights back to the owner.” Hod continued that data governance, privacy and safety are quickly becoming key differentiators in enterprises’ appeal to consumers: “We think we can help enterprises use data and digital rights to make even more attractive offers to their customers – while at the same time taking data safety and privacy to new levels. This approach will become a “must have” for new business models such as Open Banking, but also established ones where data governance, security and regulatory compliance are key, like record-keeping, music rights, and even social media use of personal data.” Beyond governance, security and compliance, One Creation is also facilitating the monetisation of digital rights. “Our platform enables digital rights owners – say, music publishers or movie studios – to define who should be allowed to use their assets and under what conditions, and then enforces and tracks these rules through multiple ecosystems.”

In addition to becoming a shareholder, GFT also played a key role in developing One Creation’s technology. “GFT is the ideal partner for us because of their comprehensive expertise with smart contract technology, and other next-generation technologies required to complete this challenging project.” explained Hod.

Marika Lulay, CEO of GFT, was also delighted with the new relationship: “One Creation has come up with a clever and powerful solution to some of the biggest challenges facing the digital economy today and in the foreseeable future. I am overjoyed that GFT has co-developed the platform and I think One Creation has a very exciting future. Their solution is especially interesting for banks and insurance companies, and of course, with our decades of experience in and deep knowledge of those sectors, it is only logical that we should approach them together. This way, we can help businesses make much better use of their data and digital rights to really tap into those ‘oil wells of the 21st century.’” Lulay continued: “GFT’s core business performance is on track to deliver as expected and given we currently register a good start into 2021 we are very optimistic about our future.”

*) The digital data rights management market is set to reach USD 8.77 billion by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 21,3%. The global data monetization market is expected to reach USD 7.34 billion by 2027. Sources:
Digital Rights Management Market Size, Share, Trends & Forecast (verifiedmarketresearch.com)
Data Monetization Market Size Worth $7.34 Billion By 2027 | CAGR: 24.1%: Grand View Research, Inc.