Ceon

Sometimes, the best businesses are born from necessity. In 2016, two university students in Budapest, Tamas Kadar and Bence Jendruszak, bonded over a shared interest in cryptocurrencies. They decided to launch their own crypto exchange for the Central and Eastern European market. However, their new venture was immediately targeted by fraudsters, and they began losing money to illicit activities. They searched for a fraud prevention solution but found that existing options were not suitable for a small, high-risk business like theirs. This is the classic fork in the road. Instead of giving up, Kadar and Jendruszak decided to build their own solution. Their tool proved so effective that other high-risk merchants and crypto platforms started asking if they could use it too. This was the pivot. They realized the tool they had built to solve their own problem was the real business. That company became SEON. SEON's core business is protecting online companies from fraud by using software to analyze data points from social media and IP addresses to flag suspicious users. What set them apart was their focus on a product-led growth model, offering transparent pricing and a freemium version, making their technology accessible to small and medium-sized businesses, not just large enterprises. This approach resonated with the market. The company has raised over $100 million, including a significant $94 million Series B round. With hundreds of employees across offices in Budapest, London, Austin, and Singapore, SEON has investigated over a billion transactions for thousands of customers, demonstrating a clear and compelling solution to a widespread problem.