Tines Security has governments in its sights as it targets new business

Tines, a company that helps businesses with their information security processes, is targeting government agencies as potential clients as it looks to expand in the European and US markets.

The company, founded by Eoin Hinchy and Thomas Kinsella in 2018, built a tool to help businesses tackle hackers and security risks.

“Information security today is hard. Everyone is being targeted, from individuals receiving phishing text messages to the largest companies in the world who are victims of attacks by state-level attackers,” Thomas Kinsella, co-founder and chief customer officer at Tines, told the Business Post.

“Organisations from tech start-ups to governments to some of the largest companies in the world use Tines to build smarter, more secure processes and allow their teams to focus on more impactful, company-specific risk-reduction efforts.”

The company employs 165 staff, and it has raised approximately €90 million over the course of three funding rounds. Outside of their target markets in the tech space, the company has had great traction in selling to government groups, forcing them to invest further to expand business.

“Government institutions have significant security challenges they need to prepare for and respond to, but the space was not an area the Tines team had much experience in. Now we are seeing national government institutions, international organisations, universities, and even US federal institutions, choosing Tines. We are investing significantly in hiring and researching how to help them with their processes,” Kinsella said.

We set about building a product that would allow anyone, regardless of their background, to build and automate their processes – and we are still on that mission today

Kinsella and Eoin Hinchy, the co-founder and chief executive, founded the company after experiencing their own frustrations during their ten years in the information security industry.

“We had great teams and tools but were struggling to stay on top of the changing security landscape and constant alerts. We knew that automation had to be part of an answer, but we could not find any tools we liked. So, we set about building a product that would allow anyone, regardless of their background, to build and automate their processes – and we are still on that mission today,” Kinsella said.

The company has hundreds of customers on its books, but Kinsella says the real growth can be seen in its work with businesses outside of the tech sector.

“This year organisations like Mars, Oak Ridge National Labs, Holland and Barrett and even large multinational organisations have chosen Tines to help them build their workflows,” he said.

The company has received great support from its local enterprise office and Enterprise Ireland. The company received a grant at the beginning of the journey which allowed Kinsella and Hinchy to pay themselves a salary while the business scoped out its first customers.

“Since then, Enterprise Ireland have been supportive all along our journey. Most significantly, they’ve introduced us to some of our largest and most successful customers in the US and Europe,” Kinsella said.