Who Was Sophia d’Antoine? NY Tech Startup Margin Research Founder Dies After Being Struck By Car

Sophia d’Antoine, 30, founder of cybersecurity research startup ‘Margin Research,’ died last Friday (April 5) three days after being struck by a speeding SUV in New York’s Upper East Side neighbourhood.

On Tuesday (April 2), d’Antoine was crossing York Avenue at East 87th Street around 9:30 p.m. when she was hit by the speeding 2017 Land Rover. She was found in critical condition after the crash and was taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center. She fought with the injuries for three days, before succumbing to them on Friday.

According to the New York Post, d’Antoine lived on East 87th, about half a block from the spot of the crash. She has been described has a ‘Hacker in Residence’ by the website of a cyber security event she was associated with previously. She founded Margin Research in 2018, according to the startup’s website.

“Since 2018, we’ve been dedicated to tackling new research problems in cybersecurity. We’re a boutique research firm based in NYC engineering tailored solutions for our clientele,” the website’s About section states. It says that the the firm has clients like DARPA, Fortune 500 companies and nonprofits.

According to her LinkedIn profile, d’Antoine studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute between 2011 and 2015. Before founding Margin Research, she worked as Security Engineer at Cisco and Tumblr. She also spent nearly four years as Senior Security Researcher with Trail of Bits.

The police said that the SUV that struck d’Antoine was being driven by a 72-year-old man. During last week rain showers in New York, the man first struck d’Antoine and then went on to hit a taxi, sending it smashing into a parked, unoccupied Ford Explorer. The 62-year-old taxi driver is in stable condition after receiving treatment at the New York City Health + Hospitals , in Elmhurst.

The 72-year-old driver of the Land Rover that hit d’Antoine is still at large.