Inspeere Raised €600,000

Translation from French to English with the help of Google Translate:

Inspeere SAS, a French start-up specializing in the field of cybersecurity and data protection, announces its recent seed capital fund raising.

This operation was possible thanks to the collaboration of several strategic investors. It strengthens the company’s position on the technological and innovative side, as well as the vision of its founders oriented towards the development of solid and lasting partnerships with IT resellers and distributors.

This fundraising was carried out with the participation of various investment partners, including the Business Angels of the Grandes Écoles, Defense Angels, Arts et Métiers Business Angels, the NACO fund managed by M/Capital, BPI France, Airbus Développement and the University of Côte d’Azur.

In total, the company closes a first funding round at €600,000 euros, demonstrating the interest and confidence generated by the company in the cybersecurity and data protection sector.

Designed to meet the growing data protection imperatives of businesses in a changing digital world, DATIS represents more than just a solution. It is the result of in-depth research carried out by Olivier Dalle, co-founder and technical director of Inspeere, within the joint laboratory of the CNRS and the University of the Côte d’Azur.

Securing digital assets through its patented system, DATIS encrypts data, fragments it, then disperses it across a secure network, forming robust protection. Full access to data remains exclusively reserved to the authorized owner, eliminating any point of vulnerability.

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Beyond financing, the start-up is securing its development and intends to establish partnerships with players in the IT channel to strengthen its presence on the market. The objective is to reach VSEs and SMEs, as well as local authorities, by providing advanced cybersecurity solutions to those who lack them. The company is committed to collaborating with IT resellers, supporting them in marketing its solutions and creating opportunities for mutual growth.

“We believe in the power of partnerships to build a safer and more robust future in cybersecurity. This fundraising will not only allow us to expand our market presence, but also to develop long-term relationships with partners resellers who share our vision of data protection“, says Michaël Ferrec, president. “The French entrepreneurial cybersecurity ecosystem is experiencing particularly positive dynamics, with average growth of 7.5% over the last 5 years. Several French nuggets illustrate this today, between substantial fundraising and strong growth ambitions.”

“These companies, including Inspeere, fully underline the attractive potential of cybersecurity for investors in France,” adds Guy Gourevitch, president, Défense Angels.

“The investment in Inspeere supports the cybersecurity development strategy in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, aligned with the Cyber Campus. This strengthens the ecosystem by promoting synergies between local cybersecurity companies, such as Tehtris, thus contributing to positioning the region as a national and international leader in this field aligned with our long-term vision,” concludes Jean-Pierre Renaudin, president, NACO.

Comments

Introduced to our readers in April 2022 with this startup profile, Inspeere continues to address SMB data protection needs with its innovative solution.

In fact, the team applied a series of technologies glued together by an intelligent orchestration software layer. They leveraged Linux, OpenZFS, encryption, compression, snapshot, replication, load balancing, network control, P2P, dispersed techniques, erasure coding (EC) with Reed Solomon to name a few.

Choosing ZFS was a key decision as this disk file system offers a rich features set. The entire machines swarm runs Linux with OpenZFS, all being independent but logically linked by the data dispersion realized by ZFS snapshot and replication coupled with EC. On the paper, the solution uses a 36+12 EC model but the SMB reality pushed the team to deploy 4+2 or 6+2 which appear to be largely enough as the edge appliances, the Datis boxes, are never switched off as permanent entities.

The Datis network established with such configurations can be used by any local point by any backup software, tool or OS command, running locally via NFS, SMB or S3. In that domain, we see Acronis, Atempo, Veeam, Nakivo, Bacula, etc. that can route the backup image to the local Datis server. Today, the Datis box is a Terra Computer machine.

Divide and conquer philosophy helps to delay secondary storage purchase and even avoid it to build very solid data environments.

Being French and from Europe gives some advantages and the solution is GDPR and NIS2 compliant. The fact that no new dedicated storage has to be acquired for the backup usage means that the Inspeere solution is aligned with green and ESG objectives companies have to comply with.

In terms of business, the team signs interesting deals and expects to penetrate real estate chain, law firms, network of pharmacies or clinics, hospitals, etc., so clearly vertical segments are key beyond dispersed franchise businesses. Imagine such a box at companies like opticians stores, food chains, Century21, Domino's or Starbucks or similar profiles, etc. as not all people use SaaS applications, you get the idea.

The company is small with a limited team with a big ambition thanks to this first round. But it illustrates once again that European investment funds are, let say, smaller than the ones we saw in USA in that domain for instance. Recently we introduced, in the Atempo article, the idea of the necessity for Europe to build a giant data management entity and Inspeere would be a good member of such initiative.

More globally, this P2P and dispersed storage wave was started more than 15 years ago, reactivated recently with the Web3 directions, and we saw players or technologies like Aerofs (acquired by Redbooth in 2017), AetherStore (disappeared), Airweave, Aleph, Blockade (dead), CESS, Cleversafe (acquired by IBM in 2015 for $1.3 billion), Cloudplan, Cubbit, Datomia (dead), Hive, KerStor (acquired), Kopit (dead), Memento Cloud, Opacity, Protocols Labs and its large partners ecosystem fueled by IPFS like Seal Storage, Sia, Space Monkey (acquired by Vivint in 2014 and integrated now in the Vivint Smart Drive), Storj, StorX, Symform (acquired by Quantum in 2014, product dead), Transporter (from Connected Data merged with Drobo in 2013, acquired itself in 2015 then owned by StorCentric but stopped), Ubbey Tech (dead), UbiStorage (dead then reappearing under the Ugloo brand 2 times, still exists), web3.storage, Wuala (acquired by LaCie in 2009 later itself acquired by Seagate in 2012, product dead) or Züs (0Chain) to name a few.