« AI has unrealized potential in cybersecurity. At Custocy, since our inception, we have made the choice to build a solution centered around artificial intelligence with strong internal expertise. Our team consists of 30% PhD holders and doctoral candidates. AI models do not self-manage as some may believe; they require daily exercise and reconfiguration by humans. Through our Custocy Lab, we are innovating more than ever to stay at the forefront of technology and ensure the security of our clients. We would like to express our gratitude to the French government, through Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, for their trust and support. »
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Custocy, the winner of the i-Nov competition, has secured funding for its project, Custocy Lab, estimated at 2.2 million euros
June 14, 2023
Cybersecurity - Artificial Intelligence - Security network
Custocy, a cybersecurity startup based in Toulouse, announced that it has been selected as the winner of the 10th wave of the i-Nov innovation competition, organized by BPI France and the French Government as part of the national Cybersecurity France 2030 strategy. This funding will allow Custocy to develop Custocy Lab, aimed at creating a rapid learning environment for Artificial Intelligences (AI) in Occitanie and hiring around twenty new employees by 2025.
Founded in 2018, Custocy, the developer of the NDR Custocy solution for AI-based detection of cyberattacks in corporate networks, continues its development with national support through the i-Nov funding for its Custocy Lab project. Organized by BPI France and the French Government, this competition supports innovation projects with strong potential for the French economy, aiming to foster the emergence of leading companies in their field with international reach.
As cyberattacks multiply and become more complex, especially with the rapid development of generative AI, the effectiveness of training different AI models becomes a key factor in the success of a cybersecurity solution. Indeed, the advanced capabilities of generative AI, such as coding, can fall into the wrong hands and lead to a surge of cost-effective cyberattacks in the short term.
Custocy, French precursor of collective artificial intelligence serving cybersecurity
With its NDR (Network Detection & Response) solution, Custocy offers an approach to monitoring corporate networks based on multiple layers of artificial intelligence that form a collective artificial intelligence. They inspect data flow at different time scales, from the shortest to the longest, to detect various types of attacks. They interact with each other to agree on the severity of a threat and are driven by a reference AI, the METALEARNER, which makes the decision to alert the user or not.
This unique strategy in the market enables extremely effective and more precise detection of cyber intrusions, generating 88 times less false positives than an approach that considers only a single time scale.
The Custocy NDR solution is distributed as a subscription-based SaaS and is primarily aimed at municipalities, hospitals, medium-sized enterprises (ETIs), and large corporations.
The Custocy Lab to train Artificial Intelligences to deal with new attacks
To feed and improve AI models, their training is a critical phase that will determine their effectiveness and durability, requiring the implementation of a highly performing testing platform. The Custocy Lab aims to test and develop new adversarial AI approaches. The implementation of adversarial AIs will enable Custocy experts to create new attacks never seen before, thereby testing the limits of current AIs.
Once the limits are identified, Custocy can readjust them to perform in the detection of “zero-day” attacks (previously unknown to security experts).
20 recruitments in Occitanie and a new certification for Custocy that accelerates its development
The establishment of the Custocy Lab is accompanied by a recruitment plan for around twenty new employees by the end of 2025 in all areas of Custocy (data science and development, sales, customer success). Additionally, Custocy aims to obtain the Level 1 Security Certification (CSPN) issued by the National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI), which attests that the solution has successfully undergone a security evaluation by an accredited evaluation center.
This funding represents an additional step in the development of Custocy, operating in the highly dynamic NDR market estimated at 843 million euros in 2026 on a European scale.
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About Custocy
Custocy is a cybersecurity software company based in Labège, Occitanie region. With a team of AI doctors, researchers, and cybersecurity experts, Custocy has developed its Network Detection & Response (NDR) solution. This Toulouse-based company stands out with its strong expertise in artificial intelligence, applied to the field of cybersecurity, providing businesses with enhanced network monitoring for detection and resilience against cyberattacks. In early 2022, the start-up raised 3 million euros with the support of BPI France and Capital Croissance. It is backed by the Occitanie Region and collaborates with LAAS-CNRS. For more information, visit our website: https://www.custocy.com/
*Source : Maia Research PMP Analysis 2021
