APrivacy, formerly I Think Security, has announced plans to expand operations to Hong Kong.

“Hong Kong was a natural choice for us,” said Dr. Cedric Jeannot, APrivacy’s founder and CEO, who travelled to the Asian financial capital to take part in the FinTech Innovation Lab in 2014.

Jeannot has made several trips between Waterloo Region and Hong Kong, with help from the Canadian Digital Media Network’s Soft Landing program, and those visits led to the decision to establish a permanent presence.

“We were exposed to potential clients and came to understand the need for security and compliance in this region,” said Jeannot. “We recognized that setting up an office in Asia would allow us to tap into a large new market.”

APrivacy, which specializes in encryption and tracking technology for financial institutions, will continue to be a Canadian company headquartered in Waterloo Region, where its core research and development operations are located.

“The support of the Canadian Government, and the Accelerator Centre and Communitech incubators in Waterloo, has been vital to our success, and we want to retain a key presence here,” Jeannot said.

Since June, the company has changed names and more than doubled its size, a trend it expects to continue over the coming months.

Its new Hong Kong office will focus on client relations.