Inforcer raises 50 million dollars to shield small businesses from AI and cybersecurity risks

London-based startup Inforcer has closed a $50 million Series C round led by Insight Partners; the company's other investors include Dawn Capital and Meritech Capital, although the source does not specify whether they took part in this round. What stands out is not just the figure but the pace: in barely 18 months the company has strung together three rounds totaling $110 million, doubling its valuation between the Series B and the Series C, though it has not disclosed the specific number.

Inforcer does not sell cybersecurity directly to small and medium-sized businesses; instead it builds the software used by managed service providers (MSPs) to administer all of their clients' Microsoft 365 accounts from a single platform. It is an indirect model, but one with plenty of room to run: most SMEs cannot afford an in-house IT department, so they outsource that function to MSPs, which in turn need increasingly sophisticated tools to serve more clients amid growing technical complexity.

According to chief executive and co-founder Jamie Daum, the business is growing 300% year on year, and the near back-to-back rounds have been necessary because cyber threats and AI itself are evolving very fast. Since its launch in 2023, the company has channeled much of the capital into product development, with two specific bets: a 'Shadow AI' detection feature (to identify when employees use unauthorized artificial intelligence tools on company devices) and a real-time threat detection and response tool.

Co-founder and chief community officer William Connor stresses that the nature of the attack landscape has changed: these are no longer campaigns planned over months, but attacks executed in minutes. Attackers use AI to analyze what is vulnerable in a company and large language models to write more convincing phishing emails. For SMEs, Daum says, that translates into threats that are 'more automated, more scalable and harder to defend against than ever'. Connor adds that, beyond external attackers, there are also concerns about data governance risks and the use of AI and agents inside organizations themselves, a front the company is already factoring into its planning.

Product growth comes alongside a change in commercial model: its original tool, 365 Manager, was charged per managed client, while the new threat detection product is moving toward per-user pricing, a scheme Daum considers more aligned with the way MSPs sell these solutions to their own customers. Looking ahead, he does not rule out that some AI-linked products will adopt consumption- or token-based pricing models.

For now, Inforcer is keeping its focus on the Microsoft ecosystem, given the enormous base of SMEs still using that set of tools, and plans to step up its expansion in the United States. On the risk that Microsoft ends up building equivalent features itself, Connor is relaxed: he argues that the tech giant has historically focused on platforms for large enterprises, leaving room for specialized providers serving smaller, more segmented customers. 'We see ourselves as complementary to Microsoft, not as competitors', he sums up.