Making it Work
Business is seeking to work alongside existing cybersecurity tools rather than compete with or replace them
Protostars, a Dublin-based regulatory technology business, expects to raise €2 million in its seed funding round next year, and to create 10 new jobs. The firm, which was founded by Kim McKayed and Mohamed Fayez in 2023, is based in Dogpatch Labs, has 13 staff and has raised €310,000 to date.
“We’re helping company leaders comply with new laws. In the same way that there’s a CE mark on anything manufactured in Europe, if you want to buy a piece of software it has to have that same type of stamp as well,” McKayed told the Business Post.
“We’re using large language model (LLM) technologies to take a traditional security approach and create a new way of compliance control. The LLM works out what a company needs to do to comply with regulations.”
The business is seeking to work alongside existing cybersecurity tools rather than compete with or replace them.
“It’s another layer of defence that helps to streamline operations. This can help with communications beyond traditional tech teams. It provides information that legal teams and board members can use to better understand what their risk is and what they need to invest in compliance,” McKayed said.
The genesis of Protostars came from the first Gulf War in 1991. McKayed, whose family is Irish-Egyptian, was an 11 year old at the time living in Qatar. He brought a gas mask with him to school every day because of fears of attacks. It was that experience that led to him later deciding that whatever business he worked in, he wanted to make sure it would help people.
“I always wanted to get involved in something that had a positive social impact. With this area, I realised there was a shortage and it was evident that I could help,” he said.
The business won the EY start-up academy in Frankfurt and later got invited to join the Station F accelerator in Paris. That helped to attract more talent to the business.
“We’re doing something that hasn’t been tried before but we want to make it easier for people to meet compliance while being able to get on with their jobs,” McKayed said.
Protostars is supported by Enterprise Ireland, and McKayed said he has found the experience beneficial to his business.
“It’s been fantastic being able to meet companies from different international locations through the relationship. We’re pushing to go global and they’re helping us to keep modest while we do that,” he said. “It’s crazy how much confidence comes from just becoming an Enterprise Ireland client. It’s fantastic.”
The business is seeking €2 million in its seed round to enable it to scale its operations further.
“If we want to go for bigger financial services companies, they need to know what we have is secure so we’ll have to invest more in our software,” McKayed said. “We want to make products smarter for security. That way, if there is a breach, it will be easier to communicate it and what needs to happen in order to protect people.”
This Making It Work article is produced in partnership with Enterprise Ireland
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Company details:
Founded by: Kim McKayed and Mohamed Fayez in 2023
Staff: 13
Funding: €310,000
