Singapore-based Antler, a global early-stage venture capital firm, announced on Wednesday that it has invested €100K in Amsterdam-based Insiber, a platform for SMEs to address their cybersecurity risks.
The company’s founders, Guido van Nispen and Vitaly Shtyrkin, met during Antler’s Amsterdam residence in 2022. With the launch of Insiber, the co-founders aim to make it simple for SMEs to get in touch with the tools and cyber insurance that best suit their individual requirements.
Youri Doeleman, Partner at Antler, says, “SMEs, even if they are individually far less complex than a large corporation, exist in enormous diversity and hence cannot be served with one-size-fits-all solutions. The Insiber team understands that you, therefore, need flexibility and customisable solutions to serve this market. Given the sheer size of cyber risk combined with underinsurance in the SME segment, the market needs to mature quickly. Insiber’s cyber resilience platform brings this rapid scalability by bringing together relevant security providers and insurers without having to develop and maintain every solution in-house.”
“With Insiber, Guido, Vitaly and their team are making the world safer for all of us and solving a large problem that could easily upend our lives if not taken care of,” adds Doeleman.
One-stop platform for cybersecurity and cyber insurance
According to a statement from Antler, the cybersecurity and cyber insurance markets are yet to mature. Every day, new malware, ransomware, phishing, and data breach threats are created, posing a vast societal and economic risk that has insurers all over the world growing increasingly concerned.
As per Allianz risk barometer, 44 per cent of risk management experts identified cyber incidents as the most critical business risk in 2022. Hiscox’s analysis suggests that 48 per cent of businesses disclosed a cyberattack in the previous year, while many have not reported. According to a study by Insiber, over 90 per cent of SMEs have a medium to high cyber risk profile. Cybercrime Magazine says that the cost of cyber events would rise from $6T in 2021 to $10.5T in 2025. As a result, the bar for being properly insurable against cyber risk is rising.
This is where Insiber looks to make a difference. It is a free, all-in-one SaaS platform that supports cyber resilience and gives SMEs access to insurance and cybersafety.
The startup believes that different SMEs will always require different standards of safety and insurability, for instance, depending on the nations in which they conduct business, the quantity and sensitivity of the data they handle, their supplier relationships, and the configuration of their IT infrastructure.
Insiber also promotes ecosystem-wide collaboration between all key players, including SMEs, cybersecurity service providers, cyber insurers, and insurance consultants, in contrast to traditional SME cybersecurity solutions, which concentrate on a small number of in-house technology. The company says it can uniquely map a collection of cybersecurity solutions and relevant insurance policies to each SME by bringing these parties together on a single platform.
Guido van Nispen says, “With trillions of US$ in damages, cyber incidents are the #1 risk for SMEs. Still, their cyber risk is massively underinsured, leaving these businesses with immense exposure and significant threats to their continuity. The SME market needs to increase its cyber hygiene: assessing the company-specific cyber risk profiles and clarifying coverage areas to drive SMEs to improve cyber security and risk management controls.”
About Antler
Founded in 2017 by Magnus Grimeland and a team of entrepreneurs, investors, and company builders, Antler is an early-stage venture capital firm that aims to fundamentally improve the world. The VC wants to create thousands of companies globally that solve ‘real’ problems.
Founded on the belief that people innovating is the key to building a better future, Antler partners with people across six continents and in 25 cities to launch and scale high-potential startups that address meaningful opportunities and challenges.
Antler has invested in and helped build over 600 companies across a wide range of industries and technologies, with the goal of backing more than 6,000 by 2030. The firm has offices globally across most major entrepreneurial hubs, including London, Berlin, Stockholm, New York, Singapore, and Sydney.
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