Paris-based Elba, a cybersecurity platform that aims to protect companies from cyber threats by having their employees solve issues themselves, has raised a €2.5m seed round.
What does Elba do?
The idea for Elba came out of French and Belgian startup studio eFounders, which ideates a business before inviting entrepreneurs to join and launch them as startups. Elba was founded in 2022.
It uses “user-focused security” — which was pioneered by Netflix security teams — to get employees to review and solve security issues, rather than putting all the burden on IT teams. Its tech integrates with clients’ SaaS stacks, detects security issues and pings teams to fix the issue with one click. That could be anything from an HR employee accidentally sharing a document with personal information about employees, to a salesperson logging into a CRM without multi-factor authorisation.
So what?
SaaS usage has exploded. According to Elba, companies with more than 1,000 employees use an average of 177 SaaS apps — exposing them to a plethora of cybersecurity risks. EU data shows that ransomware attacks doubled in 2022, and Elba found that as many as 80% of successful attacks were caused by employees making inadvertent errors.
In turn, cybersecurity startups have popped up to try and stop them from happening — and investors are interested. European cybersecurity startups raised around $1.8bn last year, becoming one of the few sectors to match the total funding drummed up in the year before.
Who invested?
The round was led by Berlin and Paris-based VC firm XAnge. Other investors included:
- Kima Ventures;
- Plug and Play US;
- Uncorrelated;
- Angel Invest;
- Netflix’s former chief information security officer Jason Chan.
What’s next?
The company says it plans to use the funding to invest in R&D, specifically to improve the end-user experience and integrate with new apps, and expand internationally — with a specific focus on the US market. It’s also aiming to double its headcount from 10 to 20.
