42Crunch

About 42Crunch

42Crunch, established in 2016 by co-founders Isabelle Mauny, Jacques Declas, and Philippe Le Hegaret, operates within the rapidly expanding API security market. The company's genesis is rooted in the founders' extensive backgrounds in API management and security. Isabelle Mauny, for instance, spent 12 years at IBM, where she was involved in the API Connect and DataPower products, while Jacques Declas brings over two decades of experience in the same field, also at IBM. This collective expertise identified a critical gap in the market: the need for a developer-first approach to API security, shifting protection from a production-only concern to an integral part of the development lifecycle.

The firm offers a specialized platform designed to secure APIs throughout their entire lifecycle, from design and development to runtime protection. This is achieved through a three-pronged approach: 'Audit,' 'Scan,' and 'Protect'. The 'Audit' function provides a detailed security scoring of an API's OpenAPI/Swagger definition file, offering developers immediate feedback on potential vulnerabilities. The 'Scan' capability then actively tests the live API endpoints to uncover discrepancies between the design contract and the actual implementation, identifying security and conformance issues. Finally, the 'Protect' component offers a micro-firewall that enforces security policies, blocking malicious traffic before it can reach the API.

42Crunch's business model is centered on a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering, catering primarily to enterprise clients and their development and security teams. It integrates directly into the DevOps pipeline, supporting tools like CI/CD, to automate security testing and enforcement. This 'shift-left' methodology empowers developers to build secure APIs from the outset, reducing governance costs and accelerating deployment times. The platform addresses a critical business need, as unprotected APIs represent a significant attack vector for enterprises' digital assets. By providing a comprehensive, automated solution, 42Crunch enables organizations to enforce security policies consistently across their entire API portfolio.