TF Industries | Seedhouse

The Idea
What it's about

Cyber threats are among the greatest risks facing corporate IT. Whether ransomware, data theft, supply chain attacks, or sabotage – attacks are on the rise. AI models like Anthropic's "Mythos," which hunt for zero-day vulnerabilities, are opening a new dimension of threat that is evolving rapidly and demands new protection concepts for companies that want to defend themselves effectively.

Backup systems are a prime target: 96% of attacks aim at them, 75% encrypt them – resulting in 23 days of downtime and $5.1M in damages. "Immutable" cloud backups are not secure enough.

TF-Industries addresses this with VaultGate: a patented airlock technology that creates a hardware-based security zone – an environment in which backups, critical workloads, and processes are protected from attacks at the physical level, not merely at the software level. The result: resilience, instant recovery, and compliance with NIS2, ISO 27001, and DORA. For this approach, we were recognized as winners at the ECSO Cyber Investor Day 2026.

The team
Who is behind it

TF-Industries is led by Fabian Gieshoff (Managing Partner & CTO) – IT Security graduate from Ruhr University Bochum, the university's youngest patented founder, and former backup developer at the German Federal Ministry of Defence – and Uli Vinkelau (Managing Partner Strategy & Business Development), with 25+ years of IT leadership, including former CIO/COO at Microsoft EMEA HQ, supervisory board member, and two-time founder with successful exits.

we are looking for
investors

Our mission: to develop answers to both known and emerging cyber threats. To that end, we are looking for sales and integration partners (MSPs, system integrators, backup specialists) as well as strategic investors with a focus on cybersecurity and critical infrastructure.

tf industries
use case

At Kögel Bau, our solution protects business-critical backups from cyber attacks through genuine physical network isolation. Implemented is a DR recovery scenario covering several hundred terabytes of data: instant recovery to the cloud, complete redundancy, and a restore time of just minutes. Complemented by weekly recoverability tests, AI-powered anomaly and malware analysis, and encryption – aligned with ISO 27001 compliance requirements. The trigger for adoption was growing awareness of cyber security incidents at other companies, with the goal of proactively hardening their own infrastructure.

interview
tf industries

What does your solution concretely deliver – in one sentence?

VaultGate ensures that companies remain immediately operational after an incident – even in a threat environment where AI-powered cyber attacks are being industrially scaled – through instant recovery from a physically unaltered backup and verifiable compliance with NIS2, ISO 27001, and DORA.

Which companies is your solution best suited for?

Companies with a high dependency on data availability and regulatory requirements, or with elevated exposure to cyber attacks – particularly organizations subject to KRITIS and NIS2 obligations, industrial and mechanical engineering firms, healthcare providers, financial services companies (DORA), public authorities, as well as law firms and medical practices. Thanks to its product variants (Card, Rack, Desk, Backup Ready), VaultGate scales from SMEs to enterprise data centers.

How complex is a typical implementation?

VaultGate is deliberately designed to preserve existing backup and recovery software (Veeam, Arcserve, Commvault, SEP, and others) as well as established workflows – it simply adds a physical airlock layer on top. Depending on the scenario, four variants are available: the VaultGate Card (a PCIe card for direct installation in existing servers), the 19" rack unit for data centers, the external VaultGate Desk for SMEs, practices, and law firms, and the preconfigured, hardened VaultGate Backup Ready with an integrated Veeam environment (scalable from 8 to 104 TB airlock capacity). Airlock time windows are individually configured to match backup cycles and operational processes; common storage targets such as NAS, SAN, S3, and others remain fully flexible.

What do you need from the customer to get started?

A technical contact from IT or IT Security, an overview of the existing backup architecture (software in use, data volumes, RPO/RTO targets), and clarity on the applicable regulatory framework (NIS2, ISO 27001, DORA) so we can tailor the configuration accordingly.

What are the next steps for interested companies?

The easiest starting point is a no-obligation initial conversation – in around 30 minutes, we assess the current situation, identify risks, and align on goals. This is followed, if there is interest, by a live demo of VaultGate and a tailored integration concept for the desired environment.