A Decade of Category Creation—And What Comes Next

This month marks 10 years since we launched DataDome. It’s been an exciting decade of building technology that’s now protecting some of the world’s biggest enterprises, and of growing a global team united by a shared mission: to protect the web from fraudulent traffic.

When we started, bot protection was seen as a feature. Fraud was handled by a different team, with different tools. We knew that separation wouldn’t last, because attackers don’t think in silos—and their tactics don’t stop at your login page.

So we built something different: a platform that fuses cybersecurity with fraud prevention. Not just to block threats at the edge, but to detect and stop them across the entire digital journey.

Now, as we enter our second decade, we’re doubling down on that vision—and inviting the industry to join us.

A platform born from engineering depth

Before I became CEO, I was DataDome’s founding CTO. I wrote the first lines of code. I designed the architecture that is the foundation of our platform. And I made the core decision that’s defined us ever since: build for performance, resilience, and adaptivity—not for trend-chasing.

From day one, we were a tech-first company. We didn’t follow industry hype; instead, we followed attacker behavior. We studied how bots evolved, how fraudsters pivoted, and how security gaps widened as businesses scaled digitally. That informed every design choice—from our detection models to our decision engine.

We didn’t wait for AI to become a buzzword. We saw its potential early and embedded it into the heart of our platform. Not as an add-on, but as the core mechanism that enables us to analyze trillions of signals per day, detect intent in real time, and block attacks before they cause harm.

This architecture—distributed, adaptive, and AI-native—is why our customers trust us. They know our protection doesn’t just look for known threats. It understands behavior, learns from patterns, and evolves continuously. That’s how we’ve achieved near-perfect accuracy, with sub-millisecond response times, even during the most complex bot attacks or coordinated fraud campaigns.

As the threat landscape shifts again—this time driven by AI-powered adversaries—we’re not scrambling to adapt. We’re already there. The same tech that helped us lead the bot protection category is now enabling us to redefine it, by merging cyber defense with fraud prevention in one unified platform.

Category leadership requires more than code

We’ve always believed that world-class tech needs to be usable. That’s why we brought consumer-grade UX into an industry that didn’t expect it.

From transparent dashboards to intuitive controls, we’ve made it easier for teams to see what’s happening, why it’s happening, and how to act on it…without the noise. It’s what modern security demands: real-time protection, not endless alerts.

But tools are only half the story. The other half is people.

I invest a lot of energy making sure we hire and retain the best talent at every level. This has always been the case, but it’s especially true now more than ever as we’ve moved from a small, scrappy startup to an established leader.

I’ve made it a point to personally meet every candidate, regardless of role. Because one misaligned hire can impact an entire team, and because our mission only works when the team is genuinely aligned with it.  

That alignment matters even more in a fast-evolving space like cybersecurity & AI. We need people who don’t just understand the tech, but believe in its responsible use—especially when it’s weaponized by bad actors. 

What’s next: AI, and the fusion of cyber & fraud

The next decade won’t just be about blocking threats faster. It’ll be about redefining how businesses build trust online.

Fraud and cybersecurity are no longer separate disciplines. They’re converging—driven by the same underlying tactics, automated at scale by AI, and targeting the same weak points in digital journeys. Businesses can’t afford to treat them in isolation.

That’s why DataDome is building more than a product; we’re building a new category that brings together cybersecurity, fraud prevention, and a seamless user experience. 

So here’s to the next 10 years! We look forward to pushing the boundaries of what AI can do to protect the web—ethically, effectively, and at scale – and securing customer journeys, business integrity, brand reputation, and ultimately, the future of the internet.

To our customers: thank you for trusting us to protect what matters most to your business. To our team: thank you for building something no one else has. And to the industry: this is just the beginning.