Irish startup Cytidel raises €1.35 million to transform how organisations protect themselves from cyber attacks

Cytidel, a cybersecurity startup that specialises in helping companies rank, prioritise and fix security threats, has secured €1.35 million in a seed round led by Elkstone Ventures and Enterprise Ireland.

Cytidel focuses on helping business leaders and executives make efficient, high-impact decisions, by identifying which cyber risks pose the biggest threat to their business. Cytidel’s risk prioritisation engine analyses several factors such as threat intelligence, critical revenue streams, and regulatory requirements. In an environment where senior individuals are under high levels of pressure, this approach helps ensure the right budget and resources are applied to the right areas at the right time.

Cytidel works with blue-chip customers including An Post and Carne Group, enabling their security teams to operate with over 95% enhanced efficiency. This improvement targets the identification and resolution of vulnerabilities that could significantly affect crucial revenue streams or customer data.

Matthew Conlon (ex-Accenture and Workhuman) and Conor Flannery (ex-Integrity360 and Accenture) co-founded Cytidel in 2021 after spending a decade in cyber security across IT, finance and policing. Having witnessed firsthand how cyber security teams are overwhelmed with the quantity of cyber risks, the pair developed Cytidel.

Matthew Conlon, CEO and founder of Cytidel said, “Every day, over-stretched cyber security professionals are faced with thousands of new security vulnerabilities and little time or resources to fix them all. We developed a platform that helps them to get clarity from the noise, significantly improving their ability to identify and fix the cyber risks posing the greatest threat to their revenue streams. In a world where cyber threats are increasing 25% year on year, Cytidel provides actionable insights and clear remediation guidance.”

The round is led by Elkstone Ventures with participation from Enterprise Ireland. This financial backing will enable Cytidel to expand beyond its first suite of products, as they aim to further increase the efficiency and effectiveness of cyber security tools that can combat rising security threats. Cytidel plans to use the funding to grow the engineering function, with the aim of up to 10 new hires in the next year.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney said: “Ireland is at the forefront of development and innovation in the international cybersecurity sector, and Irish tech companies have a growing reputation as being a global leader in the sector. I want to commend Matthew and the team at Cytidel on its recent successful funding round. Today’s announcement is a significant milestone for this ambitious and dynamic company, which provides tangible solutions to help combat serious cyber threats to companies.”

Anna-Marie Turley, Department Manager of Entrepreneurship & HPSU Operations at Enterprise Ireland said, “At Enterprise Ireland we are acutely aware of the increasingly sophisticated cyber security threats that face the global business world and have been proud to support Cytidel on their scaling journey. Supporting Irish companies with the ambition to scale globally is a key priority for Enterprise Ireland and we look forward to working closely with Cytidel to drive accelerated growth across international markets.”

Barry Brennan, Venture Partner at Elkstone Ventures said, “I was lucky to meet Matt a number of years ago and was impressed by his early vision for Cytidel. We were delighted to see the fantastic additions of Conor and Gary to the team with incredible expertise in threat intelligence and building technology solutions that customers love.  We are also impressed by the calibre of customers the company has garnered in such a short span. Cytidel has a huge opportunity ahead to reduce cyber threats significantly in Ireland and globally.”

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