French startup Riot has successfully raised $30 million in a Series B funding round, signaling its commitment to transforming the landscape of employee cybersecurity. This funding will allow the company to expand its innovative approach to cybersecurity, which is currently focused on educating employees about risks while actively encouraging them to minimize their attack surfaces.
Founded by Benjamin Netter, who also serves as the CEO, Riot has reached impressive milestones, including an annual revenue of $10 million for 2024. The company’s flagship product, an Employee Security Posture Management platform, is readily accessible via popular collaboration tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams. With a client roster that includes notable names like L’Occitane, Deel, Intercom, and Le Monde, Riot currently interacts with approximately one million employees across 1,500 companies.
Leadership in Funding and Valuation
The latest funding round is being led by Left Lane Capital, with participation from existing investors including Y Combinator, Base10, and FundersClub. With this investment, Riot has achieved a post-money valuation exceeding $170 million.
Riot’s mission is clear: to shift the focus of cybersecurity from mere education to actionable changes that employees can implement to protect themselves and their organizations. The platform encourages users to make simple yet effective adjustments—such as changing settings and activating multifactor authentication—to enhance their security posture. Benjamin Netter emphasizes the importance of these small changes, stating,
“It’s the little things you can do that will take you a minute or two, and that will basically make life difficult for hackers.”
Riot’s strategy acknowledges a significant gap in the existing cybersecurity landscape, where employee security often receives insufficient attention. By nudging employees toward proactive behaviors, the company aims to create a more secure environment for businesses while simultaneously addressing the neglect of employee security in traditional posture management solutions.
Vision for a Comprehensive Cybersecurity Future
Netter envisions a comprehensive future for Riot, outlining plans to develop a broader suite of tools aimed at enhancing employee cybersecurity. He stated,
“My long-term vision is to build an employee security company and to provide all the tools in the employee security stack. So it’s possible that one day we will make — I’ll give you a silly example — an antivirus or a password manager.”
A key feature of the platform is its ability to automatically analyze employees’ security practices and assign them a “karma score,” an innovative metric that reflects an employee’s cybersecurity posture. This scoring system serves as an indicator not only of individual performance but also of overall organizational security health. Netter elaborated on this aspect by saying,
“What we’re creating with the platform is that we’re going to automatically analyze the employees’ security … and we’re going to give a score, which we’ve called a karma score, which will be an indicator of the employee’s posture.”
As cyber threats continue to evolve, the need for robust employee cybersecurity measures becomes increasingly critical. Riot’s innovative approach offers organizations a proactive way to empower their workforce against potential attacks. The company’s commitment to enhancing employee security through education and actionable steps positions it as a pivotal player in the cybersecurity sector.
What The Author Thinks
Riot’s innovative approach to employee cybersecurity marks a pivotal development in the field, combining educational elements with actionable measures. By engaging employees directly in the security process and providing them with tools to improve their cybersecurity habits, Riot not only enhances individual security but also boosts the overall protective measures of the organizations it serves. This strategy represents a progressive shift towards empowering employees, recognizing them as crucial stakeholders in cybersecurity efforts.
Featured image credit: storyset via Freepik
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