« We are among the 12 finalists, and we certainly hope to be among the laureates. The pitch on February 12 by Edouard [de Rémur] and Julien Rozeaux. »
At the end of January, VirtualBrowser had officially announced in those terms its invitation to the grand oral of the INCYBER Start-Up Prize Forum.
In the end, Oodrive’s spin-off did indeed become one of the laureates. It even claimed the Grand Prix with its RBI solution (remote browser isolation), whose clients include Bouygues, Framatome, Naval Group, Safran, and the European Council, among others.
VirtualBrowser recently obtained CSPN certification. It has established bridges with Oodrive, which integrated its solution into its DR (restricted distribution) offering.
Label4.ai, prix de la recherche et « coup de cœur du jury »
« This year we’re not arriving empty-handed. We’re coming with an extra payload: a double laureate of the Startup Prize. »
Nicolas Bodin Guittard, co-founder and president of Label4.ai, can boast that his company is the first to win two prizes since the FIC began awarding them in 2014.
Before founding this company, he held roles as legal director at Intercloud, Shadow and Qwant. Previously, he worked as a legal counsel within the TF1 Group. There he crossed paths with Anthony Level, who would become Label4.ai’s cofounder and who would serve as senior legal adviser for “new media”… alongside whom, notably, were Vivien Chappelier (CTO), Rony Abecidan (forensic director), Teddy Furon (scientific adviser) and Mathieu Desoubeaux (business adviser).
Avanoo, prix de l’impact opérationnel
« Two topics are more present than ever on the table: shadow AI and digital sovereignty. If Avanoo can contribute, even modestly, to helping organizations regain control of these issues, then we are exactly where we should be. »
Tanguy Duthion, co-founder and president of this company, spoke in early March. The Startup Prize jury had just awarded him the Operational Impact Award.*
His remarks reflected the direction Avanoo was taking with its SaaS management solution — presented at the FIC in the SSPM light.
The company, founded in 2024, initially bore the name Sonar Clarity. It changed its name the following year, in parallel with its first fundraising round, with Auriga Cyber Ventures. This European VC has several French companies in its portfolio: H Company, Mindflow, Patrowl, CryptoNext Security, etc.
Tanguy Duthion is a marketing professional (Montpellier Business School graduate; former Google advertising specialist and Asana partnerships executive). Étienne Delouvrier, who co-founded Avanoo with him, is likewise (NEOMA Business School; ex-HubSpot, Google and L’Oréal). The founding team also includes former DGSE personnel.
Qevlar AI, prix de la croissance
« SOC teams perform best when they can think in terms of patterns, campaigns and impact rather than individual alerts. This visibility has always existed in theory. We’re determined to turn it into reality. »
A few weeks ago, Ahmed Achchak slipped—in English in the text—this remark after a $30 million funding round for Qevlar AI. A graduate of CentraleSupélec in biotechnology, he is a former data scientist and ML engineer in the banking sector, and is chiefly the president of this Île-de-France startup, co-founded with Mohamed Sayah (CEO and CTO; EPFL graduate and former CircleCI).
Promising to automate SOC operations with graph AI and generative AI, Qevlar AI won the Growth Award. It counts Atos and Orange Cyberdefense among its partners.
* Winners announced in early March. The awards ceremony will take place on April 1, 2026 at the INCYBER Forum.
