Cybersecurity startup CybSafe, a “behavioral security” platform, has raised $7.9 million in a Series A funding round led by IQ Capital with participation from Hanover Digital Investments (HDI) GmbH and B8 Ventures. The investment round will be used to focus on expanding its enterprise and midmarket client base. CybSafe is a SaaS product with a per-user-based, subscription licensing model.
As most people in tech know, the big concern with security isn’t so much the system as the people. Indeed, 90% of U.K. data breaches are generally due to human error, for instance.
CybSafe’s “behavior-led” platform manages these people-related security risks using behavioral science and data analytics by delivering personalized cyber support for users. The company already has 350 clients in 15 countries, including Credit Suisse, Air Canada, HSBC and NHS Trusts.
Launched in 2017, the company was founded by cyber resilience and intelligence expert, Oz Alashe MBE, a former lieutenant colonel in the British army and U.K. special forces who was the first Black officer to serve in the parachute regiment and U.K. special forces. The team includes former U.K. government cybersecurity specialists, behavioral scientists, data scientists and software engineers.
Alashe says the platform helps users develop security skills and habits through “accredited microlearning content, adaptive support material and personalized nudges. The combination of contextualized, just-in-time, and on-demand content ensures people get the help they need. They get it whenever they need it. And they get it in the way that is most likely to help them.” The platform is available in nine different languages.
CybSafe is delivered via a mobile application or within a browser, showing “bite-sized” guidance, alerts and notifications.
CybSafe’s competitors include KnowBe4, Wombat Security and Infosec, but Alashe says CybSafe’s strength is that it addresses security awareness for the average person: “Security awareness is dead. It’s ineffective. It’s inefficient. And it’s broken. CybSafe uses behavioral science and data analysis to deliver security behavior interventions that work. It has efficacy rates of over 90% for some behaviors to prove it.”
The team includes Jonathan Webster, CTO who previously worked on Her Majesty’s Government Digital Services; Dr. John Blythe, Head of Behavioural Science, and a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society.
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