Toulon, France, January 24, 2023 – Protecting and insuring against cyber risks are priorities for all companies and organisations. French cybersecurity leader EGERIE has raised 30 million euro, from investors with expertise in insurance and cybersecurity (Tikehau Capital, Open CNP, Banque des Territoires and TIIN Capital) to help executives analyse and quantify the financial risks of cyber-attacks.
A digital twin analyses and quantifies cyber risk in real-time
EGERIE’s founders, who are experts in IT and cyber risk, have developed a model that links companies’ data assets with associated business risks. In the example of a sales process, the platform can evaluate and adjust risk responses in real time, based on the evolution of threat landscape, hardware, software, suppliers, and previously unknown security vulnerabilities.
“We can now model the financial and operational consequences of specific vulnerabilities on a given business process in real time,” said EGERIE’s CEO and Founder, Jean LARROUMETS. “All parameters of a risk are linked in our model, which we call ‘the equation’. We’ve been perfecting it for a decade, and it is now stable.”
EGERIE provides customers with a complete “digital twin” of all their information assets and processes. And thanks to the decision-making capabilities of “the equation”, they can formulate effective cybersecurity strategies and calculate ROI.
“Our platform considers every possible corrective action to a malicious attack, and automatically recalculates the risk level,” Jean LARROUMETS added. “With 300 clients in 90 countries, including Veolia, Orange, and Accenture, EGERIE now has thousands of cyber-oriented risk models for multiple digital environments or specific business functions and industry sectors that feed the ‘equation’.”
Quantifying risk helps manage the risk – and get insured against it
The number of cyber-attacks has grown exponentially in recent years. In 2022, French prosecutors opened 600 cases for malicious cyber-attacks, up from just 65 in 2019.
For companies, this increase has become an insurance nightmare. Mario Greco, head of insurer Zurich, told the Financial Times in December 2022 that cyber risk was set to become “uninsurable”.
Some companies have taken matters into their own hands. In September 2022, Airbus, Veolia, Michelin, Adeo (Leroy Merlin’s parent company), and Sonepar joined forces with BASF and Solvay to create a mutual “captive” insurance plan against malicious attacks.
“With this new fundraising, we’ll continue to invest in automation of data recovery, and we will develop specific reporting functionality for insurers,” said EGERIE’s VP and Founder, Pierre OGER. “These new features will be even more valuable when the European directive NIS 2 (Network Internet Security) comes into force in October 2024, obliging companies to have effective security measures to mitigate the risk of malicious attacks.”
Thanks to EGERIE, executives can understand and quantify their companies’ cyber risks. They can also precisely calculate the return on investment of the actions taken to mitigate the risk. This knowledge is a valuable corporate asset for shareholders, investors, and partners.
30 million raised from investors specialised in cyber security and insurance
EGERIE’s second priority will be growth across Europe. The advantage of EGERIE’s model is that it is continuously improving – the more customers who adopt the model and use “the equation”, the more accurate it becomes in quantifying the related risks.
The funds raised are split equally between EGERIE’s historic shareholder Tikehau Capital, Open CNP, a CNP Assurances corporate venture fund, Banque des Territoires, and TIIN Capital, a Dutch fund specialised in cyber security.
« We are very happy to reaffirm our support to EGERIE in its development, and more particularly towards the internationalization of its offer. We are convinced that the EGERIE’s platform is the best response to the crucial need of companies to map and control their cyber risk. » says Quentin BESNARD, Executive Director of Tikehau Capital.
“With their unique positioning, their ‘equation’ based on thousands of modelled IT assets, EGERIE has all the ingredients to become the global reference in cyber risk management,” said Roel REIJNEN, Partner of TIIN Capital. Alexandra PAILHES, Head of Investments at Open CNP, a CNP Assurances corporate venture fund, concludes “measuring cyber risk with relevant indicators, understandable by everyone and not just CISOs, is essential, particularly for the insurance and financial ecosystem. In line with our role as the most useful insurer and investor, we are happy to be able to support EGERIE financially in its European expansion. »
