French Tech: Patrowl, the start-up on the rise in cybersecurity

Companies tend to underestimate the cyber threats they face. Patrowl can help them open their eyes. The Parisian start-up maps out vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers for its clients, then fixes them before it’s too late.

In detail, Patrowl belongs to the family of specialists in securing the external attack surface, i.e. the entry points accessible from the Internet (websites, APIs, remote access, etc.). These can contain vulnerabilities or sensitive data, without the IT teams concerned even being aware of it.

Like a police patrol that monitors houses in wealthy neighborhoods during the summer, Patrowl’s software performs a permanent audit and issues alerts if necessary. “The average basket (of our subscription, editor’s note) depends on the size of the company,” explains Vladimir Kolla, CEO of Patrowl.

Around sixty customers

Founded in 2020, the start-up works with around sixty clients in various sectors (banking, insurance, luxury, distribution, etc.). Among the most prestigious are Saint-Gobain, PMU and Hermès.

“We are at a little over 2 million euros of ARR (the key financial indicator in software, editor’s note). We are aiming for 3 million by the end of the year,” the entrepreneur projects. The start-up will be able to count on additional fuel to try to reach this objective, since it has raised 11 million euros in Series A from Crédit Mutuel Innovation, SWEN Capital Partners, Bpifrance and its historical investor, Cyber ​​Impact Ventures.

A significant round of funding in a sector that must adapt to less favorable market conditions, underlines the latest Wavestone report on cybersecurity (“Radar of French cybersecurity start-ups 2024”). Patrowl assures us that he has a healthy business model. “If we stop recruiting, we become profitable quite quickly,” says the manager, who is looking to internationalize his company.

Grey boxes

Patrowl already has customers in Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and England, where the start-up will lead an offensive. “England is a stepping stone to try to go to the United States later,” anticipates Vladimir Kolla. The other challenge for the young company with 35 employees lies in improving its solution.

Patrowl has an R&D project aimed at making enhanced automation of authenticated intrusion tests (the grey-box in the jargon) and integrating generative artificial intelligence into the personalization of remediations, prediction and qualification of threats. “The day we manage to do that completely, we’ll have won the ‘game'”, says the boss, bravado. All that remains is to turn the dream into reality.