NTT Scale Academy: Quantum Startup Incubator
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NTT Research has launched Scale Academy, a new incubator led by NTT veteran Bennett Indart, with its inaugural product: SaltGrain, a zero-trust data security suite built upon attribute-based encryption (ABE) technology initially proposed by Dr. Amit Sahai and Dr. Brent Waters. The unveiling occurred at Upgrade 2026, NTT’s annual research summit, signaling a strategy to directly translate research into marketable products. SaltGrain moves beyond traditional file access methods, offering granular data control and enhanced privacy, a feature NTT Research President and CEO Kazu Gomi believes the market is ready for. “As NTT Research enters its ‘2.0’ phase, we are launching Scale Academy to iterate and grow the most promising new NTT technologies into market success,” Gomi said, positioning SaltGrain as a response to escalating cybersecurity threats and the increasing prevalence of AI.
Scale Academy Launches: Bridging Research and Commercialization NTT Research has formalized a strategy to translate fundamental research into marketable products with the launch of Scale Academy, a new startup incubator designed to accelerate innovation across its divisions. This initiative signifies a shift for the company, founded as a corporate subsidiary with a mandate for basic scientific research, toward actively commercializing its discoveries; Scale Academy will identify promising technologies and guide them through initial business development. SaltGrain’s foundation lies in work first proposed in 2004 by Dr. Amit Sahai of UCLA and Dr. Brent Waters, now director of NTT Research’s Cryptography & Information Security (CIS) Lab. The suite’s name, combining “Salt” for enhanced hash security and “Grain” referencing ABE’s granular access control, reflects its core functionality. The suite aims to address shortcomings in existing cybersecurity models by binding access policy directly to encrypted data, enabling more refined control and secure collaboration.
Leading Scale Academy is Bennett Indart, NTT Research SVP of Product Innovation, who emphasizes the need for a flexible approach to startup development. “Business start-ups have their own rhythms and incentives that quarterly metrics miss,” Indart said, “Scale Academy accommodates those realities.” SaltGrain specifically targets enterprises managing sensitive data in sectors like finance, healthcare, and technology, where data breaches carry substantial financial risk, and where the increasing use of AI agents demands robust privacy protections. SaltGrain Leverages Attribute-Based Encryption for Data Security Current cybersecurity paradigms often rely on broad permissions, granting access to entire files or datasets even when only specific portions require review. A shift towards more granular control is underway, driven by advancements in cryptographic techniques. Attribute-based encryption (ABE), first proposed in 2004 by Dr. Amit Sahai of UCLA and Dr. Brent Waters, is now central to a new data security suite called SaltGrain, developed by NTT Research’s Scale Academy. This transition from academic research to a commercial product demonstrates a focused strategy for translating fundamental science into marketable solutions. Scale Academy, launched at Upgrade 2026, is designed to nurture breakthrough technologies originating from NTT’s research labs and across its divisions, with SaltGrain serving as the inaugural offering. SaltGrain’s ABE functionality operates within a zero-trust framework, allowing for fine-tuned access to data, even within complex documents like images or videos. This level of control is particularly crucial in the expanding use of artificial intelligence, where agents require data access for learning, but privacy and sensitive information must remain protected. Recent performance improvements by NTT Research scientists have prepared the ABE core of SaltGrain for deployment in a post-quantum computing environment, addressing emerging threats to data security. As NTT Research enters its ‘2.0’ phase, we are launching Scale Academy to iterate and grow the most promising new NTT technologies into market success. Zero-Trust Architecture Enables Granular Data Access Control NTT Research is moving beyond foundational cryptography research with the commercialization of attribute-based encryption (ABE), first proposed in a 2004 paper co-authored by Dr. Amit Sahai of UCLA and Dr. Brent Waters. This technology underpins SaltGrain, a new zero-trust data security suite launched alongside the debut of Scale Academy, NTT’s startup incubator designed to accelerate the transition of research into marketable products. Scale Academy, led by NTT Research SVP of Product Innovation Bennett Indart, represents a deliberate shift toward fostering internal innovation rather than relying on external venture capital. Unlike conventional security models that depend on perimeter defenses or coarse access controls, SaltGrain’s application of ABE enables organizations to share and analyze data with greater confidence by controlling access to sensitive portions of the data. Post-Quantum ABE Core Targets AI-Driven Enterprise Security Originally conceived in a 2004 paper co-authored by Dr. Amit Sahai of UCLA and Dr. Brent Waters, SaltGrain binds access policy directly to the encrypted data itself, offering a more nuanced approach to protecting sensitive information as AI agents increasingly require access for learning and analysis. This technology is being commercialized through Scale Academy, a new NTT Research startup incubator led by Bennett Indart, SVP of Product Innovation; the launch of both the academy and SaltGrain occurred at Upgrade 2026, signaling a deliberate strategy of aligning research unveiling with product announcements. Crucially, the ABE core of SaltGrain has been engineered for post-quantum deployment, addressing the looming threat of quantum computing breaking current encryption standards. The suite’s ability to protect sensitive data within documents and images is particularly relevant in an era where AI agents are becoming ubiquitous, requiring secure yet accessible information streams. SaltGrain is a data security suite that breaks the prevailing all-or-nothing file-access paradigm, closes cybersecurity gaps and enhances privacy protection, which is much needed in the environment where AI agents are everywhere and playing a wide variety of roles. Source: https://ntt-research.com/ntt-research-launches-scale-academy-and-new-quantum-safe-security-platform/ Tags: