London-based Inforcer announced Thursday a $50 million Series C round led by Insight Partners — the latest sign of investor interest in a category of startup solving a very mundane problem: Most small businesses can’t afford an in-house IT department, so they outsource it to managed service providers, or MSPs. Inforcer builds the software those MSPs use to manage all of their small- and medium-size business clients’ Microsoft 365 accounts from a single platform.
Companies like Inforcer have attracted increased VC interest due to growing market demand. Especially with AI and security risks, running an in-house IT department has become increasingly complicated, so more outfits are turning to MSP experts to handle it. But that also means MSPs need more infrastructure, not only to manage many more clients, but also to keep pace with how complex IT has become these days.
No wonder, then, in just 18 months, Inforcer has raised three rounds totaling $110 million. Business has been growing 300% year-over-year, Inforcer co-founder and CEO Jamie Daum told TechCrunch, adding that the company has doubled its valuation between its Series B and C, though he declined to share that number. He said the near back-to-back rounds were needed because cyber threats and AI have continued to evolve rapidly.
Thus far, the company, which launched in 2023, has invested much of its capital in product development, such as creating Shadow AI detection, to help organizations detect when employees are using unauthorized AI tools on company devices, and launching a threat detection and response tool to catch cybersecurity risks as they happen.
Cybersecurity, in particular, has become a growing area of concern, Inforcer co-founder and chief community officer William Connor told TechCrunch, noting that attacks now take minutes to execute rather than months to plan. Attackers, for example, are using AI to analyze what to attack in a company, while using LLMs to help craft more convincing phishing emails.
“For SMBs, that means facing threats that are more automated, more scalable and harder to defend against than we’ve ever seen before,” Daum added.
“Beyond hackers, there are also risks around how organizations are governing and protecting their company data, and governing the use of AI and agents within businesses,” Connor continued. “These are security concerns we are now planning around.”
Inforcer is also looking to expand further in the U.S. With new products comes a slightly different business model. The 365 Manager was priced per client, but with the launch of the new threat-detection tool, Inforcer is moving toward a per-user model that better aligns with how MSPs sell these tools to their customers. “As we continue to move further into AI within our platform, some of our future products could also become consumption or token-based [pricing models],” Daum continued.
Right now, the company says it will remain focused on the Microsoft suite, especially as so many SMBs still use it. They also aren’t particularly worried about Microsoft building more of these tools themselves, with Connor saying Microsoft’s focus has historically been on creating platforms for larger enterprises, leaving room for specialized vendors to serve smaller, more segmented customers.
“We see ourselves as complementary to Microsoft rather than competing with them,” Connor said.
Other investors in the company include Dawn Capital and Meritech Capital.
