meet Bastionis a French start-up founded in October 2022 to help small businesses tackle cybersecurity risks without too much complexity. The company, founded by a former Palantir employee, has already raised $2.8 million for him.
What makes Bastion different from other cybersecurity startups is that we want to be the first and last cybersecurity subscription. It bundles several different products that revolve around cybersecurity risks using a software-as-a-service approach.
Frst, Global Founders Capital, Kima Ventures, Motier Ventures, as well as business angels such as Denis Duverne, Joshua Motta, Renaud Deraison and Gaëlle Olivier have invested in the company.
At Palantir, four co-founders, Arnaud Fournier, Arnaud Drizard, Sébastien Duc, and Robin Costé, were involved in some form of cybersecurity. Some of them were part of a small team responsible for cybersecurity, outside of government or administrative agencies. One of them was responsible for anti-fraud services for large banks and insurance companies.
“Companies we talk to say, ‘We have insurance brokers and accountants. Why do we have multiple cybersecurity products?'” says co-founder and CEO Arnaud. Mr Fournier told me.
If you want to lock your bike in a big city, you can use 3 different locks to make sure the wheels are properly secured and the bike itself is attached to the pole. This gives you almost 100% certainty that your bike will be stolen.
Alternatively, you can purchase a suitable U-lock to ensure a more secure attachment than most bikes. And this is Bastion.
Essentially, Bastion’s ideal customer just wants to make sure their company is secure and free of major vulnerabilities that could cause major disruption in the future.
Bastion currently has four different modules. First, the startup runs a phishing simulation test. This is because many security problems stem from employees distributing their credentials. In this training module, Bastion Competing with Riot.
Bastion then scans your infrastructure and web applications to ensure that your attack surface is as small as possible. The company will give you a list of modifications to improve your configuration.
Third, Bastion scans and protects endpoints such as employee laptops. “We offer his EDR solution, which is a sort of improved antivirus tool with a team that monitors what’s happening in real time,” he said. EDR stands for “Endpoint Detection and Response”. For this product, Bastion has partnered with his EDR provider in White Label.
And finally, Bastion wants a fourth module to allow businesses to monitor incoming email. Clients can now forward suspicious emails so they know for sure if it’s legitimate. At some point, the startup also wants to help people set filters on incoming emails so they don’t appear in employees’ inboxes.
“For some of these products, we have found them to be very expensive for what the existing products on the market offer. We will rebuild the %,” Fournier said.
Bastion offers an entire suite for around €10 per employee per month. This isn’t cheap, but some companies can choose to subscribe to some of what his Bastion has to offer.
Interestingly, the company has no plans to sell its products directly to small businesses. Instead, the company partners with outsourced security service providers, banks, insurance companies, and others.
In the coming months, Bastion will build a network of partners who are already helping small businesses and can start selling Bastion to their own customers. Of course, there will also be new features and product improvements.
Image credit: Bastion
