Small- and medium-sized businesses are more at risk of cyberattacks compared to larger companies. In the fourth quarter of 2023, small businesses saw 21 threats per user and medium-sized companies encountered 32 threats per user.
A Denver startup that recently raised a $50 million Series B round is helping small- and mid-sized businesses better protect themselves.
Todyl, which was named a Colorado Inno Startup to Watch in 2022, is a cybersecurity platform for distributed workforces that brings devices, end users and cloud to a single, secure network. It consolidates security information, governance, risk and compliance, end-point security and more in one tool. Information technology teams also have access to Todyl’s 24/7 managed extended detection and response team and a recently introduced security orchestration, automation and response module.
The startup announced its recent Series B on March 7, but filed the round with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 26. It was the second largest round raised by a Colorado company in March, according to Colorado Inno.
This round comes nearly two years after Todyl raised a $28 million Series A round in March 2022.
The Series B was led by Base10 Partners, a technology investment firm based in San Francisco, with participation from Anthos Capital, Tech Operators and StoneMill Ventures.
“Todyl has demonstrated that it is becoming a meaningful and serious alternative to some of the incumbents in the space,” Jason Kong, a partner at Base10, said in a statement. “The company’s growth and vision has reminded us of Palo Alto Networks, but for an SMB segment that’s been largely ignored by the cybersecurity market up until this point.”
The fresh capital will help accelerate Todyl’s growth by hiring more people and opening new offices globally.
Todyl CEO and founder John Nellen told Colorado Inno he plans to more than double the startup’s headcount to 150 by the end of the year. The startup began in 2024 with 70 employees and has already grown its headcount to 85 people. Todyl has even added 12 people to its Denver team this year.
Heavy hiring will take place across Todyl’s engineering, product and security teams. The company also plans to add to its sales and marketing teams.
Todyl is headquartered in Denver with another office in Atlanta and a presence in Bucharest, Romania. The company’s employees work in the office five days a week, Nellen said.
“We found that the in-person collaboration reduces our time to market, facilitates better outcomes with work products [and] allows us to move faster,” he added. “We look at it as a competitive advantage.”
In the second half of the year, Todyl anticipates opening an office in Mumbai, India, and a larger space in Bucharest. It’s also looking to open new U.S. locations.
“We’re finding that there are natural pockets of talent across the U.S., and that’s a part of where we’re exploring to open up some additional locations,” Nellen said. “We’re seeing the same internationally as well. So even outside of Europe, we’re exploring some locations, too.”
Todyl was founded in 2015 but took its product to market in 2019. In 2020, after looking at seven different cities, Todyl moved its headquarters from New York to Denver. Nellen said the startup landed on the Mile High City due to its tech talent and “strong brand,” making it easy to recruit talent from all over — something he said still rings true today.
