• This financing, mainly operated by La Banque Postale – via its new 115K innovation fund – and Elaia Partners, a historical investor, will allow the French encryption and secure computation specialist to accelerate the distribution of its first products and continue to innovate.
  • Its ambition is tremendous since it intends to establish “end-to-end encryption” within organizations, i.e. protection for sensitive data everywhere and all the time, and in particular in the cloud.
  • Cosmian also announces the launch of its public Cosmian for Confidential Computing platform to accelerate the uptake of Confidential Computing techniques and democratize their use.

 

Paris, June 20, 2022: Cosmian, the French deeptech specializing in cryptography and advanced encryption technologies, today announced a €4.2 million fundraising. This new round is made with 115K, the new innovation fund of La Banque Postale dedicated to FinTech, AssurTech and Cybersecurity start-ups, as well as Elaia Partners, one of the main European investment funds specialized in deeptech. Elaia Partners had already invested at Cosmian’s inception in a €1.4m early-stage financing alongside Guillaume Amblard (CEO of Amblard Ventures) and the family holding company Fiblac, who are also participating in the new round.

Secure computation for privacy by default.

Having built the technologies necessary to protect data and algorithms in use in the cloud, Cosmian is now able to provide an unprecedented advance in the security and privacy of data in use.

The French deeptech now allows companies to secure the use of sensitive data and applications without ever compromising the security and privacy of the data used, including in the cloud. The data is kept encrypted even during its use and includes access rights. In other words, with its End-to-End Encryption approach, Cosmian offers to protect sensitive data and confidential calculations everywhere and all the time.

Founded by two French engineers, Sandrine Murcia and Bruno Grieder, Cosmian works in close collaboration with leading European laboratories and is advised by David Pointcheval, CNRS 2021 silver medalist, and Professor Nigel Smart, who heads the COSIC (Computer Security and Industrial Cryptography) research group at KU Leuven University.

Cosmian has twenty employees, including researchers and developers of excellence in cryptography. The company has also established technological partnerships with key players such as Intel and Denodo, the data virtualization leader.

 

An important support for Cosmian effort to democratize Secure Computation.

“Today, as the web has evolved from http to https, there is no longer a reason why data should not be systematically encrypted and therefore better protected. Moreover, as the cloud has become the infrastructure of choice for critical applications of large groups and unicorns of the new economy, the demand for security and confidentiality is stronger than ever. The objective is clear: that the cloud learns nothing, neither of the data nor of its use” explains Bruno Grieder, CTO and co-founder of Cosmian.

“By supporting Cosmian’s teams, it’s our first step in cybersecurity, a central theme in the 115K investment thesis, and addressing a crucial issue for a bancassurance group like La Banque Postale: the protection of sensitive data. In addition, Cosmian is able to offer a state-of-the-art cryptographic solution, validated by some of the world’s leading experts in the field, easy to integrate at the customer’s site and, what’s more, sovereign. Several arguments that convinced us to support Sandrine, Bruno and their teams alongside Elaïa” explains Damien Launoy, Investment Director at 115K.

“The exponential need for data analysis is increasingly coming up against issues of privacy, sovereignty and security. As is often the case, it is through advances in cryptographic science and the development and marketing of new models and innovative technologies that these issues can be resolved. Cosmian, which we have been supporting since its creation, combines all the know-how in science, technology and market to become the great continental leader in this field“, says Xavier Lazarus, Partner at Elaïa Partners.

Accelerate the take-up of Confidential Computing.

Since its inception, Cosmian’s ambition has been to develop cutting-edge encryption technologies that are easy to deploy and use in companies. To democratize their use, Cosmian is launching the first public Secure Computation platform for IT & Cybersecurity departments as well as for developers and data engineers.

Cosmian for Confidential Computing allows the following critical cases to be performed securely and confidentially:

  • My company offers SaaS solutions. My customers no longer want to send me their data in clear text. How can I continue to operate my services?
  • My company has developed proprietary algorithms. How do I keep my algorithm confidential when it runs on my clients’ sensitive data?
  • My company needs to cross-reference data with other partner companies (joint customers, etc.) but no one is prepared to give direct access to their databases in clear text.                                                       

The public Cosmian Secure Computation platform is freely available here and makes it easy to set up your first Secure Computations, to protect data, algorithms and results.

“Our End-to-End Encryption solutions have been validated by our first customers in the financial services, healthcare, energy and defence sectors. Our offering is unique: we provide state-of-the-art advanced cryptography in the form of easy-to-use, decentralized developer tools. This new round of funding aims to increase our development capacity and to increase our traction in the market, with critical applications that are mostly deployed by unicorns” adds Sandrine Murcia, CEO & Co-founder of Cosmian.

 

About Cosmian

Founded in France in 2018, Cosmian is the leading platform for securing sensitive applications and data through the use of advanced encryption technologies. These encryption technologies now make it possible to protect sensitive data and confidential algorithms in use – without either data or calculations being exposed to unauthorized third parties – including in the cloud. Data is encrypted everywhere and all the time: this is End-to-end Encryption. Cosmian provides IT & Cybersecurity Departments with server libraries and components – including in SaaS mode – for developers and data engineers to easily and transparently implement privacy-by-default in applications and in big data repositories & process chains.For more information, visit https://cosmian.com – @CosmianOfficial