Stoïk, the French startup which offers a cyber insurance offering in addition to technical risk prevention solutions, has just completed a fundraising of nearly 10 million euros. So, on this occasion, Business Cool spoke with Jules Veyrat, co-founder and CEO of this startup. The objective? Learn more about the ambitions of this startup!
Everything you need to know about Stoik
Who are you ?
My name is Jules Veyrat, and I am the co-founder and CEO of Stoïk. After following a preparatory class, I obtained my HEC diploma in 2017, with a specialization in entrepreneurship during my final year. At the end of my studies, I joined a nice French SME called Philo Editions, which is the publisher of Philosophie Magazine. For four years, I worked closely with philosophers within this publishing house.
However, my initial desire was to embark on an intense collective adventure, with a project likely to achieve four-digit growth rates. What mattered most to me was finding an area where I could add value and where there was significant growth potential. I noticed that cybersecurity issues for SMEs and mid-sized companies were not very developed in Europe, unlike the American market where I had already spotted a few projects similar to what we are doing today. In April 2021, I launched the Stoïk adventure: expert cyber risk insurance for SMEs and mid-sized companies.
What is Stoik doing?
In a context where cyberattacks are increasing and hitting European SMEs and mid-sized companies hard, we have developed a cyber insurance offering associated with technical risk prevention solutions as well as an internalized security incident response service. A simple and innovative product that meets the needs of insurance brokers who wish to insure their most vulnerable clients. There are currently more than 1,500 partner brokers of the company who distribute the Stoïk insurance product and are trained in specific market issues via the online platform provided. The approach quickly enjoyed great success on the French market: nearly 2,000 policies were taken out and the symbolic threshold of 10 million premiums should be crossed by the end of the year.
Stoik’s fundraising
Why did you raise 10 million euros?
After having taken a major position in the French cyber insurance market, we are aiming for European leader status and we have raised 10 million euros to support our internationalization, with the support of the Munich Re Ventures and Opera Tech Ventures funds. We launched our activity in Germany in September 2023.
To support our European expansion, we raised 10 million euros from 4 prestigious investment funds, including Munich Re Ventures which led the funding round, as well as the Opera Tech Ventures fund and its historic investors Andreessen Horowitz and Alven , bringing our total to 25 million euros in the space of 2 years. These funds allow us to open an office in Cologne and build a first-rate local team. Management of the German activity has been entrusted to Franziska Geier.
What will Stoik look like in 5 years?
To continue our mission to ensure and protect all SMEs and mid-sized companies in Europe, we will launch our activity in other European countries. Today we enable our partner brokers to insure their clients who have a turnover of up to 500 million, we wish in the future to cover bigger risks, increase our appetites and our capacities. Our objective is to become the benchmark player in the cyber insurance market in Europe.
