Secfense and its investors believe in cryptography

Secfense and its investors believe in cryptography

Secfense Investors

Secfense, the cybersecurity start-up from Poland has recently raised 2m $ from Tera VC, Presto Ventures, and RKKVC. The company has entered the US market and prepares new products.

Secfense has been present in the cybersecurity market for over three years and operates so dynamically that in the recent financing round it was offered three times more capital than the founders, Tomasz Kowalski and Marcin Szary, were raising. It continues its development in Poland and takes its first steps in foreign markets – the US and the UK. In the United States, Secfense founders have registered a company and launched a representative office. The company is currently working on expanding the sales team in Poland and the UK. It is also preparing the launch of a new solution. 

Cybersecurity for enterprises and large organizations 

One of the company’s latest accomplishments was the implementation of its core solution called User Access Security Broker (UASB) in a large public organization that maintains and develops the largest state IT systems in Poland (the name of the client has not been made public). Secfense broker is a technology focused on simplifying the method of implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) in organizations. Thanks to UASB, MFA can be added to a large number of applications without interfering with their code. UASB also makes it possible to work in the so-called passwordless model (where end users authenticate with factors other than a password). Secfense broker protects organizations against the effects of phishing, credential theft, attacks on logged-in user sessions, man-in-the-middle attacks, etc. 

Secfense’s clients are mostly large organizations and corporations. So far, around ten large companies have used the Secfense solution, including PKP Intercity, BNP Paribas, one of the state-owned companies, and insurance companies (due to the cyber protection policy, not all companies want to make their cybersecurity providers public). – We tested our solution on the Polish market, and it proved its effectiveness and won the first customers. We are talking about corporations in which decision-making and implementation processes take a long time. Now we have to do exactly the same in foreign markets. We want to prove that our product is trustworthy. Competition in the cybersecurity market is fierce – emphasizes Tomasz Kowalski, the CEO, and co-founder of Secfense. The start-up is already getting ready to launch another product. Later this year, a mobile application is planned to be launched on the market, which will make it possible to use a smartphone as an authenticator offering the same level of security as cryptographic keys (U2F). Company officials say they are working on ‘cryptography for the masses.’ They do not reveal the details of the project yet. 

Cybersecurity – one of the hottest industries today

Secfense Investors Viewpoint

Tomasz Kowalski emphasizes that cybersecurity is one of the hottest industries today. We could observe a large increase in the demand for digital security after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting transfer of many stationary activities to the Internet. – The interest in investment funds and business angels in financing start-ups that create this type of tools has also increased. We had no problem closing the $ 2 million round, on the contrary – we had a financial surplus. We did not want to accept a larger pool of capital because it would mean too much dilution of the shares. It would not be beneficial for the company at the present stage of development – explains Tomasz Kowalski. 

The company just recently received 2m $ from Tera VC, Presto Ventures, and RKKVC and at an earlier stage of development, it received over 700k $ from early investor Bitspiration Booster VC. Tomasz Kowalski announced that in the near future Secfense will greatly expand the team. The founders are planning to hire, among others IT developers and software testers, and strengthen the operational team.

Investor’s Viewpoint

Secfense created a new technology that solves the cybersecurity problems of large organizations. The solution is precise and easy to implement, even for corporate banks where cybersecurity standards are already high. It is also worth paying attention to the founding team – Tomasz Kowalski and Marcin Szary. They are ambitious leaders experienced in their fields with a clear plan for international business expansion. Bearing in mind all these elements, we decided to invest in the company together with other co-investors from the CEE region. Despite the fact that we have invested in Secfense just recently, we have already started a close cooperation with the founders and we support the company with our contacts and try to help in strategic decisions.

Mateusz Bodio, Managing Director of the RKKVC about Secfense 

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Testimonials

We are faced with new challenges every day. We must always be one step ahead of the attackers and know what they are going to do before they do it. We are convinced that the User Access Security Broker will bring security to a new level, both for those working at the office and from home. For us, working with Secfense is an opportunity to exchange experience with developers who put great value on out-of-the-box thinking.

Krzysztof Słotwiński

Business Continuity and Computer Security Officer

BNP Paribas Bank Poland

As part of the pre-implementation analysis, we verified that users utilize a wide range of client platforms: desktop computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and traditional mobile phones. Each of these devices differs in technological advancement, features, and level of security. Because of this, and also due to the recommendation of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (UKNF), we decided to introduce additional protection in the form of multi-factor authentication mechanisms based on FIDO. As a result, users of our applications can log in safely, avoiding common cyber threats such as phishing, account takeover, and theft of their own and their clients’ data.

Marcin Bobruk

CEO

Sandis

We are excited to partner with Secfense to enhance our user access security for our web apps. By integrating their User Access Security Broker, we ensure seamless and secure protection for our applications and systems, delivering superior security and convenience to our customers.

Charm Abeywardana

IT & Infrastructure

Visium Networks

Before investing in Secfense, we had the opportunity to talk to its existing clients. Their reactions were unanimous: wow, it’s so easy to use. We were particularly impressed by the fact that implementing their solution does not require the involvement of IT developers. It gives Secfense a huge advantage over the competition, and at the same time opens the door to potential customers who so far were afraid of changes related to the implementation of multi-factor authentication solutions.

Mateusz Bodio

Managing Director

RKKVC

Even when the network and infrastructure are secured enough, social engineering and passwords can be used to gain control of the system by attackers. Multifactor authentication is the current trend. Secfense addresses this and allows you to build zero trust security and upgrade your current systems to passwordless applications within minutes, solving this problem right away,” said Eduard Kučera, Partner at Presto Ventures and cybersecurity expert – former Director in hugely successful Czech multinational cyber security firm Avast.

Eduard Kučera

Partner

Presto Ventures

One of the biggest challenges the world is facing today is securing our identity online. That’s why we were so keen to have Secfense in our portfolio. They make it possible to introduce strong authentication in an automated way. Until now, organizations had to selectively protect applications because the deployment of new technology was very hard, or even impossible. With Secfense, the implementation of multi-factor authentication is no longer a problem, and all organizations can use the highest standards of authentication security.

Stanislav Ivanov

Founding Partner

Tera Ventures

Two-factor authentication is known to be one of the best ways to protect against phishing; however, its implementation has always been difficult. Secfense helped us solve that problem. With their security broker, we were able to introduce various 2FA methods on our web applications at once.

Dariusz Pitala

Head of IT

MPEC S.A.