Cloud Security, Ransomware

Coro CEO Guy Moskowitz plans to take an enterprise-grade security capability to the SMB market

Coro CEO Guy Moskowitz wants to bring enterprise-grade security to U.S. SMBs. (Credit: Coro)
Coro CEO Guy Moskowitz wants to bring enterprise-grade security to U.S. SMBs. (Credit: Coro)

All-in-One security company Coro has been bucking the down market this year with an $80 million funding round and plans to push its MSP channel partners up over 1,000 in the next 12 months.

The New York City-based company focuses exclusively on bringing an enterprise security capability to small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Coro estimates it grew by 125% quarter-over-quarter in 2022, targeting financial services, technology, healthcare as well as education, trucking, transportation, logistics, and manufacturing.

“Even in a down market with so much uncertainty, there are very good opportunities for companies that have the right solutions and focus on cost savings,” said Guy Moskowitz, Coro’s CEO.

SC Media caught up with Moskowitz on Thursday afternoon to talk about the need for an enterprise-grade security product for SMBs and how Coro aims to bring that capability to a broad cross-section of industry verticals.

Can you talk about the real need for a strong cybersecurity solution for SMBs?

Mid-sized businesses can’t have end-to-end protection because it’s way beyond their budgets and capabilities. So the result is that they often are not protected at all — and cybercriminals understand this and leverage it. That’s why we built a product for mid-sized companies. It’s the first time they can have an enterprise-grade security on a reduced budget. In the past, SMBs didn’t have very many options. A tech person couldn’t go to their CEO and ask for $1 million to build a security infrastructure, they just can’t afford it.

What are the business factors that make it difficult for SMBs to afford quality security?

There are three elements that impact SMBs. The first is regulation. If an SMB can’t comply with the regulations, the SMB owner can lose their business license. Now, CCPA in California has been very aggressive, they are charging $5,000 to $7,000 per leaked record. And the state of Illinois just blocked several businesses that had a data breach. The second factor is cyber insurance. Many companies need to get cyber insurance if they want to work with government, education, or just about any other company. So suddenly cyber defense becomes an enabler for an SMB to do business. But the insurance costs are very high and very few businesses can afford what the insurance companies want companies to do with security. Finally, few small business can survive a ransomware attack.

Can you describe the nuts and bolts of how Coro works?

Moskowitz: We believe that every business is entitled to have cyber protection. It’s a very basic element of our approach. We built an all-in-one platform that has malware protection, user behavior analysis, ransomware protection, email security, cloud monitoring, device security, and data leakage protection — all managed in one system. The Coro platform has one single user interface and an artificial intelligence engine that manages everything. We remove 95% to 98% of the day’s security workload on IT personnel by using automation. Customers get everything they need to comply with regulations and cyber insurance, and get full protection from malware and ransomware.

So if a company gets hit with malware or ransomware, how does Coro protect it?

We configure your system so it won’t be vulnerable for malware or ransomware. If there’s a ransom note, we isolate the user or the data around the service so it doesn’t expand and its minor. If someone’s device is encrypted by ransomware the system immediately triggers a backup so it can recover the data. We don’t just do it on devices, we do it on the cloud and in email — all on one system.

What is the fee structure for Coro?

We believe every business is entitled to detection so we provide our detection service free of charge. It’s been used by thousands of companies. If people want to get our all-in-one protection without any commitment, we charge $8.99 per month per user. An annual one-year subscription costs $6.99 per month per user.

Can you talk a little bit about you started and grew the company?

We actually have four founders and Coro is the third company we are building together. We specialize in taking a complex enterprise problem and then bring it to the mid-market. We started the company several years ago and are focused 100% on the U.S. SMB and mid-sized businesses. We have built a sales office in Chicago, a marketing office in New York, and a support center in Austin, Texas.

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