WISeKey Announces Drawdown of Final Tranche from the Financing Facility with Alpha Blue Ocean

WISeKey Announces Drawdown of Final Tranche from the Financing Facility with Alpha Blue Ocean

Zug, Switzerland – May 3, 2021 – Wisekey International Holding Ltd ("WISeKey” or "Company”) (SIX: WIHN, NASDAQ: WKEY), a leading global cybersecurity, AI and IoT company, today announced the drawdown of the final tranche under the Agreement for the Issuance and Subscription of Convertible Notes ("Agreement”) with Alpha Blue Ocean executed on December 8, 2020.

This Agreement, totaling CHF 15.5 Million, has been fully utilized and was put in place to finance the acquisition of 51% controlling interest in arago (in February 2021) and the integration of AIoT and AI technologies into the Company’s IoT cybersecurity platform. Of note, previous financing transactions involving shares in arago, have determined arago’s net value at around CHF 100 million.

This strategic acquisition reinforced the WISeKey Platform as arago is expected to bring revenue synergies and strengthen WISeKey’s position in the fast-growing AIoT market. Knowledge Automation and Data platform HIRO™, developed by arago, takes a unique approach to process automation by using AI to autonomously and independently determine how to complete and then automate end-to-end tasks based on real time contextual data. Fully auditable and only using steps defined and approved by the customer, Knowledge Automation delivers significantly higher automation rates at a much lower operational cost.  

About Alpha Blue Ocean:

Created in 2017 by Pierre Vannineuse, Hugo Pingray and Amaury Mamou-Mani, Alpha Blue Ocean is a young and dynamic family office with the mission of revolutionizing the financial industry by offering innovative and tailored investments adapted to risk.

Alpha Blue Ocean operates through a direct, rational and efficient approach in providing alternative financing solutions through PIPE (Private Investments in Public Equities) deals. ABO has made notable investments in companies such as AB Science (AB:FP), Erytech (ERYP:US), Intrasense (ALINS:FP), and DBT Group (ALDBT:FP), among others.

About WISeKey:

WISeKey (NASDAQ: WKEY; SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large scale digital identity ecosystems for people and objects using Blockchain, AI and IoT respecting the Human as the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey microprocessors secure the pervasive computing shaping today’s Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an install base of over 1.5 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anticounterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones, crypto tokens etc.). WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the edge of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications to predict the failure of their equipment before it happens.

Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKey’s Swiss based cryptographic Root of Trust ("RoT”) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit www.wisekey.com.

Press and investor contacts:

WISeKey International Holding Ltd
Company Contact: Carlos Moreira
Chairman & CEO
Tel: +41 22 594 3000
info@wisekey.com

WISeKey Investor Relations (US)
Contact: Lena Cati
The Equity Group Inc.
Tel: +1 212 836-9611
lcati@equityny.com

Disclaimer:
This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events
or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of the Swiss Financial Services Act ("FinSA”), the FInSa’s predecessor legislation or advertising within the meaning of the FinSA, or within the meaning of any other securities regulation. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.

The securities offered will not be, and have not been, registered under the United States of America Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States of America, absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of said Act.