Cossack Labs
Cossack Labs is a privately held UK applied-cryptography company that builds open-source and enterprise data security tools — Themis, Acra, Hermes, and Toughbase — serving finance, healthcare, defence, and critical infrastructure customers with database encryption and secure data exchange.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2014
- HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Cossack Labs does
Cossack Labs is a privately held British data security company incorporated in 2014 as Cossack Labs Limited, headquartered in London with R&D operations in Kyiv, Ukraine. The company builds applied cryptography and data protection software rather than purely theoretical security research, with the stated intent of making strong cryptography usable without requiring specialist expertise. Its portfolio centers on four products: Themis, a cross-platform cryptographic library supporting 14 languages and providing symmetric/asymmetric encryption, secure message exchange, and secure storage primitives; Acra, a database security suite offering transparent encryption, masking, tokenization, fine-grained access control, and intrusion detection for PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB; Hermes, an end-to-end secure data storage and sharing framework using content-based segmentation; and Toughbase, an encrypted data management platform built on top of Hermes currently in its second generation. Supplementary tools include RepoMetaScore (open-source dependency risk scoring) and CL MSS (mobile security verification framework).
Cossack Labs firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Cossack Labs
- Legal name
- Cossack Labs Limited
- Website
- https://cossacklabs.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2014
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Cossack Labs is a privately held UK applied-cryptography company that builds open-source and enterprise data security tools — Themis, Acra, Hermes, and Toughbase — serving finance, healthcare, defence, and critical infrastructure customers with database encryption and secure data exchange.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Cossack Labs industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Data Security Software
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (513210), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Privacy, Data Protection & Cyber Governance (GRC) (BPAHAFAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Governance, Controls & Policy Automation (GRC for Web3) (FSAPAJAG), Cloud Compliance, Audit & Continuous Controls Monitoring (CCM/GRC) (HDABAHAI)
Keywords
Where Cossack Labs is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- London
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices2 records
Markets served
Cossack Labs business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Acra Enterprise Edition: Commercial version of Acra with advanced security features, priority support, custom integrations, and tailored implementations for enterprise customers.
- Professional Services: Custom development, security audits, penetration testing, training, and consulting services for organizations requiring specialized implementation support.
- Themis Open Source: Open source library that generates community adoption, brand awareness, and indirect enterprise sales pipeline. No direct revenue but supports ecosystem growth.
- Acra Community Edition: Open source database security solution that drives adoption and community growth, creating pathway to enterprise upgrades.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Themis - Free Open Source |
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Acra Community Edition - Free Open Source |
| Subscription | Annual | Acra Enterprise Edition - Custom Enterprise Pricing |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
Cossack Labs product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Cossack Labs develops and sells applied cryptography and data security software products for developers and enterprises. Its commercial portfolio includes Themis (cross-platform cryptographic library), Acra (database security suite), Hermes (end-to-end secure data storage and sharing framework), and Toughbase (encrypted data management platform). The company also delivers professional security services including cryptography engineering, security audits, architecture consulting, and bespoke R&D for mission-critical systems.
Product overview
Cossack Labs offers a suite of data security products and tools for developers. The portfolio consists of Themis (cross-platform cryptographic library), Acra (database security suite), Hermes (end-to-end secure data storage framework), and Toughbase (encrypted data management platform built around Hermes). These products work together to provide layered data security: Themis provides foundational cryptographic building blocks that Acra and Hermes are built upon, while Toughbase wraps Hermes capabilities into a unified API for enterprise data management. All core products are available as open-source with commercial licensing options for enterprise use.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Themis: A cross-platform high-level cryptographic library for mobile, web, and server platforms that provides easy-to-use building blocks for data protection.
- Acra
- Hermes
- Toughbase
Products and services
- Themis Cross-platform high-level cryptographic library providing easy-to-use, hard-to-misuse encryption APIs for securing data at rest and in transit. Supports 14 languages and platforms with a 100% compatible API across them, used by developers building mobile, web, server, and IoT applications.
- Acra Database security suite providing application-level encryption, masking, tokenisation, access control, database leakage prevention, intrusion detection, and SQL query analysis for modern data-processing applications. Available as Acra Community Edition (open source) and Acra Enterprise Edition (commercial subscription with priority support and custom integrations).
- Hermes End-to-end secure data storage, processing, and sharing framework with zero trust to storage/exchange infrastructure. Provides building blocks for zero-knowledge and zero-trust architectures using content-based segmentation between distributed entities.
- Toughbase Data management application platform built around Hermes that provides end-to-end encrypted storage and sharing layer on top of traditional server infrastructure, with tools to integrate with modern databases and distributed applications. Currently in gen 2 development.
- Security Consulting and Professional Services Custom development, security audits, penetration testing, training, and consulting services for organizations requiring specialized implementation support across cryptography engineering, security strategy, SSDLC, and architecture.
Quantifiable outcome
- OWASP recommends Themis as a cryptographic library for mobile applications
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Cossack Labs
Customer profileNamed customers14 records
Segments9 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Cossack Labs technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature6 records
Cossack Labs partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- NPC UkrenergocorePartnership to strengthen Ukraine's power grid cybersecurity. Cossack Labs works with NPC Ukrenergo to protect critical energy infrastructure from cyber threats, implementing advanced cryptographic protections for operational technology systems.
- Ministry of Digital Transformation of UkrainecoreGovernment ministry partnership for UA DroneID project, an open-source remote identification system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs/drones) in Ukraine.
- Ministry of Defence of UkrainecorePartnership on UA DroneID project for developing open-source drone identification technology supporting national security objectives.
- Aerorozvidka NGOcoreNon-governmental organization partnership on UA DroneID project, combining drone reconnaissance expertise with Cossack Labs' security technology.
- USAID Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure in Ukraine ActivityminorSupport provider for USAID initiative focused on strengthening cybersecurity for critical infrastructure in Ukraine. Cossack Labs contributes security expertise to the program.
Scale indicators2 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Cossack Labs competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- HashiCorp: Provides Vault for secrets management, key management, and encryption-as-a-service. Most directly comparable as a security infrastructure platform serving developers and enterprises with cryptographic primitives and data protection tooling, and competes with Acra/Themis in adjacent key and data security use cases.
- Protegrity: Enterprise data security and tokenization platform protecting sensitive data across databases, files, and analytics environments. Directly comparable to Acra's database encryption, masking, and tokenization capabilities, and serves the same regulated enterprise buyer.
- Skyflow: Data privacy vault built on a polymorphic encryption approach, with tokenization, field-level encryption, and secure data sharing. Competes in the same data-security-for-developers and PII/PCI protection category as Acra and Hermes.
- Bouncy Castle: Open-source cryptographic library providing APIs for Java, C#, and other languages. Most directly comparable to Themis as a community-driven, multi-language cryptographic primitives library that organizations embed into applications.
Emerging players
- Zama: Open-source homomorphic encryption and privacy-preserving ML tooling. Comparable to Cossack Labs' applied-cryptography positioning and serves overlapping customers in blockchain/AI who need advanced encryption primitives, with a more specialized FHE focus.
- Enveil: Provides secure search and analytics over encrypted data using homomorphic encryption and secure enclaves. Overlaps with Cossack Labs' searchable encryption and zero-trust data processing capabilities, particularly for regulated and defense customers.
- TripleBlind: Privacy-preserving computation platform enabling secure data collaboration without moving raw data. Comparable as a cryptography-led solution in regulated industries (healthcare, finance) and is a potential adjacent partner/competitor to Cossack Labs' zero-trust data exchange story.
- Inpher: Privacy-preserving computation (secret computing) platform using secure multi-party computation and homomorphic encryption. Overlaps with Cossack Labs' cryptographic infrastructure positioning, particularly for regulated and government customers.
Broad incumbents
- Microsoft SEAL: Microsoft's open-source homomorphic encryption library. Competes at the cryptographic-primitive layer with Themis, and benefits from Microsoft's broader cloud and enterprise security distribution.
- AWS Key Management Service / Encryption SDK: Hyperscaler-native key management and encryption tooling bundled into the AWS ecosystem. A broad incumbent that competes with Themis/Acra for developer mindshare on key management, encryption, and database security, particularly for cloud-native customers.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Cossack Labs social profiles
Digital presenceCossack Labs financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Cossack Labs leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
Cossack Labs funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Cossack Labs M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Cossack Labs
What does Cossack Labs do?
Cossack Labs develops and sells applied cryptography and data security software products for developers and enterprises. Its commercial portfolio includes Themis (cross-platform cryptographic library), Acra (database security suite), Hermes (end-to-end secure data storage and sharing framework), and Toughbase (encrypted data management platform). The company also delivers professional security services including cryptography engineering, security audits, architecture consulting, and bespoke R&D for mission-critical systems.
Is Cossack Labs a public or private company?
Cossack Labs is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Cossack Labs founded?
Cossack Labs was founded in 2014. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Cossack Labs based?
Cossack Labs is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Cossack Labs make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Acra Enterprise Edition is the primary driver. The others are professional Services, themis Open Source and acra Community Edition.
Who are Cossack Labs's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are HashiCorp, Protegrity, Skyflow and Bouncy Castle. Emerging players are Zama, Enveil, TripleBlind and Inpher. Broad incumbents are Microsoft SEAL and AWS Key Management Service / Encryption SDK.
Does Cossack Labs have an API?
No public API is recorded for Cossack Labs.
What industry is Cossack Labs in?
Cossack Labs's product category is Data Security Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAHAFAF, Privacy, Data Protection & Cyber Governance (GRC), with a secondary code of FSAPAJAG, Governance, Controls & Policy Automation (GRC for Web3). Its NAICS code is 513210 and its SIC code is 7372.