Behavioural cybersecurity platform CybSafe raises £22m for US expansion

British cybersecurity company CybSafe has raised $28m (£22.4m) for its platform that uses behavioural science to provide tailored security awareness training for employees.

The London-headquartered firm’s technology is used by financial powerhouses such as Barclays Bank, Credit Suisse and HSBC.

The company will use the capital injection to hire more behavioural scientists, data scientists and software engineers as it expands into new markets, including the US.

“For too long, cybersecurity training has forgotten people, lacked any scientific basis, and provided no data to evidence its effectiveness,” said Oz Alashe MBE and the CEO and founder of CybSafe. “We are here to revolutionise this by helping businesses reduce risk by positively influencing behaviours in a way that can be measured.”

Alashe is also a former UK special forces lieutenant colonel and was the first Black officer to serve in the parachute regiment. CybSafe’s Series B round bucks the trend of just 0.24% of venture capital going to UK-based Black founders between 2009 and 2019.

Founded in 2017, CybSafe’s cloud-based platform integrates with existing software solutions, such as Okta and Microsoft 365.

Using machine learning, CybSafe gathers and crunches data on an employee’s cyber habits at work to create a personalised dashboard with advice, risk analysis and social engineering simulations.

CybSafe’s Series B round was led by Evolution Equity Partners, with participation from Emerald Development Managers and previous backers IQ Capital and Hannover Digital Investments (HDI) GmbH.

“CybSafe’s disruptive approach tackles a complex problem with a simple solution,” said Karthik Subramanian, partner at Evolution Equity Partners. “They design their products with the user in mind, ensuring they are tackling the cause rather than simply treating the symptoms of cyber risk.”

It brings CybSafe’s total funding to $40m (£32m), following its Series A round in January 2021 in which it raised £5.6m.

CybSafe is used by more than 350 organisations across 15 countries. It recently hired Munyaradzi Hoto as chief marketing officer as part of its expansion plans.

The cybersecurity company’s competitors include KnowBe4 and Wombat Security.