Whalebone has secured a significant Series-B investment (€13.35M). You see investment not as a success in its own right but rather as a commitment. What does true success mean to you?
Success is defined by our customers. It means that our product starts protecting a large number of people across different regions, in the telco sector or beyond. But it’s not just about user numbers – it’s about real, tangible value. When we see the incidents we’ve prevented and think about the stories behind them – protecting someone’s money, memories, or personal data – that’s what success looks like to me.
What do you see as the biggest challenge for Whalebone moving forward?
The biggest challenge is growth. We have a clear idea of what we want to do and how we want to do it, but we need to make sure the company doesn’t get stuck as we scale. We must maintain our momentum and scale what works today without things slowing down. That means expanding into more regions, working with different types of telco operators, and managing a larger team while avoiding operational bottlenecks.
How will this impact the company’s day-to-day operations?
A larger team means more complexity. Right now, you can solve something with one person, but soon, there will be an entire team behind it. More interactions, more processes, and potential inefficiencies – typical situations where "the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing." We need to stay ahead of these challenges before they start slowing us down.
Do you feel this is already happening?
In some ways, it is both a risk and an opportunity, and we do our best to leverage the opportunity.
You’ve been cautious about taking on external investment. Why did you ultimately choose Unbound?
Among all the investors we spoke with, they understood what we do best. Many investors couldn’t fully grasp our business case or technology – they stayed on the surface and didn’t dig deeper. Unbound, on the other hand, engaged with us on a much more relevant level. They put in the effort to understand our business, and their feedback and questions made sense. That was the key difference for me.
Because they understand Whalebone and its products, do you feel their expectations are realistic?
Yes, and that gives me even more confidence in this partnership. This isn’t just a random investment from someone looking for a place to park their money. They are making an informed decision, which means we’ll be having meaningful discussions with them instead of constantly explaining the basics.
How did your existing investors react?
They didn’t hesitate – most of them joined this funding round right away. It’s a strong sign that they trust us and want to continue this collaboration.
Where do you see Whalebone in a year? In five years?
Full global presence – not just commercially, but also in terms of technology and product development. That means we’ll have a deeper understanding of local threats and regional specifics. We’ll have dedicated teams in different regions, ensuring our product delivers the highest possible value in each market. That’s key to achieving our vision of protecting one billion users.
How will this change how the whole Whalebone team operates?
We’ll be much closer to telcos, enterprises, and governments – not just geographically, but in how we collaborate with them. We’ll have more opportunities to discuss their needs and quickly translate their feedback into meaningful innovations.
What are you personally most excited about?
Every growth phase brings in more experienced people who push the team forward. That’s about to happen again. We’ll have the resources to further advance our technology, product, and threat intelligence.
Maybe we’ll start hosting global technology conferences, publishing more research, and sharing our insights with the industry. Until now, our contributions have been occasional, but if we continue down this path, sharing our knowledge will become the norm. And that’s a great thing.
Learn more about Whalebone’s latest investment round at: https://www.whalebone.io/post/whalebone-secures-series-b-funding
Robert Sefr is the co-founder and CTO of Whalebone. After graduating from IT & Security, he joined McAfee VAD Comguard as a junior IT security consultant and climbed up to being the Comguard CTO. Robert is the author of the idea of Whalebone. His main motivation is to build a security solution available to broad masses with the best possible user experience because he believes that cybersecurity is a human right, not a privilege.