MSME Day: Security and Scale for Smaller Businesses

June 27 marks the United Nations' Micro-, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises Day, a recognition of the businesses that constitute roughly 90 percent of all enterprises, employ 50–70 percent of the global workforce, and generate about half of worldwide GDP. These organizations are also frequent targets for cyberattacks, often lacking the dedicated security teams or budgets that larger enterprises possess. Cloudflare's approach to this segment has roots in its own origin story: the company launched with the goal of democratizing access to performance and security tools that were previously the domain of large enterprises with on-premise hardware budgets.

The company's free tier and startup programs have since become pathways for small businesses to build and scale directly on Cloudflare's network. Recent figures highlight the scale of this support:

  • Over 3,000 startups are using free credits for developer services on Cloudflare's global network.
  • In 2024, 122 startups across 22 countries were accepted into the Workers Launchpad Program, gaining infrastructure, tools, and community support.
  • Since 2022, Cloudflare has partnered with over 40 venture capital firms, facilitating more than $2 billion in potential financing for participating startups.

Training and Regional Support

Beyond product access, Cloudflare has expanded its educational outreach. In 2025, the company partnered with the Indian nonprofit Cyberpeace to host a webinar on cyber resilience. The session, which covered security services onboarding and common threat vectors, drew over 95 participants. A follow-up in-person training session is planned for later this year.

The Security Burden on Small Business

Security remains a critical concern for this demographic. According to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, digital information theft now exceeds physical theft as the most frequently reported fraud against small businesses. In 2025 alone, Cloudflare reports mitigating over three million network-layer DDoS attacks targeting small businesses on its network.

To address this, Cloudflare has published a Small Business Security Guide, available through its Cloudflare for Small Businesses page. The guide provides step-by-step guidance on cybersecurity services and protection against common attacks. Underlying this effort is a policy of offering robust security services free of charge to small businesses—a position consistent with the company's broader mission to contribute to Internet security for all users, not only large enterprises.