Cyber ​​risk expert Egerie scales back to tackle mid-sized companies

Two years after its spectacular €30 million fundraising to accelerate its growth, Jean Larroumets, the president and co-founder of Egerie , admits that things have moved a little too quickly. The nugget based in downtown Toulon, specializing in publishing cyber risk management software for large groups, had grown from 70 to 150 employees in just a few months. All this while the cybersecurity market has been transformed, notably with the arrival of artificial intelligence.

"Expertise has become commonplace," analyzes the entrepreneur who presented to his investors – the January 2023 round table brought together, around the historical shareholder Tikehau Capital, the Corporate Venture fund of CNP Assurances, Open CNP, Banque des Territoires and a Dutch fund active in the field of cybersecurity, TIIN Capital –, a new strategic plan, called Horizon 2028 and which came into effect on April 1st. Before that, it was also necessary to reduce the size and return to a workforce of one hundred employees, by targeting strategic functions and structuring management. "We also "seniorized" the teams to move towards this new strategy," adds the manager in the offices on Boulevard de Strasbourg, in Toulon, which house 70% of the employees and the head office, the rest of the workforce being based in the premises on Boulevard de Clichy, in Paris. Because while Egerie already has some 500 clients in its portfolio, major public players and groups – 30% of which are CAC 40 – that have in-house cybersecurity experts and need Egerie's tool to arbitrate investments dedicated to its mastery, the objective is now to conquer another target. "We want to make the platform accessible to companies that do not have experts in their teams. In an ETI (mid-sized establishment, between 250 and 4,999 employees), the CEO has budgets, but is not always aware of the cyber risk and the fact that investing to address it can prevent a lot of losses."

Transformation

The R&D teams are therefore working to transform the solution so that it can—beyond large groups—appeal to this new type of clientele who are less experienced in cyber risk yet are just as exposed. For example, Egerie has modeled the typical risks of major business sectors, allowing it to offer many different players a tool adapted to their specific needs and adaptable, whether they are in healthcare, transport, or commerce. And it is banking on its network of distributors to disseminate this easier access to the platform to SMEs and mid-sized companies. This is clearly the right time to change course, as senators adopted, last March, the bill transposing the European NIS2 (Network Internet Security) directive into French law, which now subjects 15,000 entities to cyber obligations, compared to only 300 previously.