MokN, a Paris-based cybersecurity startup launched in 2024, has raised €2.6 million in Seed funding to broaden its deception-based id safety expertise and provoke its business rollout in the USA.
The spherical was led by Moonfire, with participation from OVNI Capital, Kima Ventures, and several other notable enterprise angels.
“The mission was born out of a cyber disaster I skilled in a earlier position, which highlighted {that a} seemingly apparent strategy was nonetheless lacking from the market. In lower than a yr, absolutely bootstrapped, we proved the worth of our answer with main enterprises. Our technical DNA permits us to talk knowledgeable to knowledgeable, which has accelerated our development. Right this moment, with confirmed expertise, robust traction, and no direct competitors within the U.S., we see a novel alternative forward,” mentioned Gautier Bugeon, Co-founder and CEO of MokN.
The MokN funding spherical suits right into a broader development of early-stage funding throughout the European cybersecurity, id, and fraud prevention house in 2025.
Startups are tackling overlapping challenges akin to autonomous cyber protection (€2.1 million for WiseBee), artificial risk intelligence and AI fraud detection (€3.7 million for Innerworks), misuse detection (€936k for Egregious), biometric authentication (€1.9 million for Keyless), fraud prevention (€6 million for Trustfull), enterprise id verification (€10 million for Duna), and digital anonymity (€1.8 million for Dold Adress).
MokN’s concentrate on deceiving attackers to neutralise stolen credentials represents a definite strategy in comparison with these friends, that are extra usually centred on reactive detection, id verification, or fraud analytics.
The startup has developed a proactive methodology to deal with the growing drawback of stolen credentials by turning the tables on attackers: as an alternative of blocking them, MokN lures cybercriminals into revealing the very knowledge they’ve simply stolen. Already adopted by over 20 enterprises – the answer has propelled the bootstrapped firm to greater than €1 million ARR in beneath a yr.
“Identification theft is among the fastest-growing and most damaging cyber threats, but it’s virtually unattainable to get well stolen credentials earlier than they’re abused. MokN is tackling this head-on with ingenious deception expertise that turns attackers’ personal ways towards them. Their speedy progress highlights each the urgency of the issue and the energy of their product. We’re proud to again their U.S. enlargement“, mentioned Akshat Goenka, Accomplice at Moonfire.
Based in 2023 by Gautier Bugeon, MokN was born out of firsthand expertise throughout a cyber disaster, which uncovered a blind spot in conventional defence methods.
The startup’s innovation lies in its “phish-back” expertise: hyper-realistic decoy portals (for instance, faux VPN or e mail login pages) are arrange inside an organization’s community. When an attacker makes use of stolen credentials on one among these decoys, they unwittingly alert the safety workforce – usually earlier than the credentials are bought or used elsewhere.
As per the corporate, the timing couldn’t be extra related. Based on the 2024 Verizon Knowledge Breach Investigations Report, compromised credentials stay the main trigger of knowledge breaches. Almost 65% of cyberattacks end in monetary hurt, and conventional defensive measures wrestle to maintain tempo with evolving risk vectors.
MokN’s trap-based technique goals to present safety groups an opportunity to intervene on the earliest attainable stage – when the attacker first makes an attempt to check the stolen credentials.
MokN’s early traction is particularly notable contemplating the corporate remained self-funded till now. In simply over 12 months, it has attracted a roster of enterprise shoppers, and guarded greater than 500,000 customers.
“We knew attackers had been concentrating on us, however by no means had direct proof. Inside days of deploying MokN, we intercepted credentials that had simply been stolen, earlier than any public publicity. These insights now assist us reinforce our detection technique and talk danger clearly to the board,” mentioned a safety chief at a French multinational.
With this Seed spherical secured, the French startup now units its sights on the USA – an under-served marketplace for deception-based credential safety. A part of MokN’s management workforce will relocate stateside to be nearer to its future clients.
The corporate additionally plans to scale its workforce in France, recruiting throughout product, gross sales, and advertising and marketing to help its dual-continent development.
“MokN’s strategy redefines the early detection of credential-based threats. Their quick deployment, sign high quality, and seamless SOC integration make them a compelling new layer within the trendy identity-first safety stack,” added Augustin Sayer, Managing Accomplice at OVNI Capital.
With no direct opponents presently providing the same proactive deception technique within the U.S., MokN seems nicely positioned to make a mark on the worldwide cybersecurity panorama – and keep one step forward of the hackers.
