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Image credit: Immersive Labs

Back in the day, to most companies, cyber skills were limited to technical teams for fixing laptops and changing passwords. Fast forward to the current time, security teams need continual upskilling, and developers require ongoing education to code securely. According to Bristol-based Immersive Labs, organisations need to hire the right talent for the ever-changing requirements to respond effectively to cyber incidents and crises.

James Hadley, CEO & Founder of Immersive Labs, says, “With cyber risk becoming a problem for a growing number of business functions, cybersecurity knowledge and skills should no longer be the preserve of a few technical people hidden away in a back office. Everyone from the teams who build software, to the CEO, now need to play their part in addressing a pervasive company issue. This requires unlocking and evidencing skills in a much broader group of people.”

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Immersive Labs raises Series C funding

In a recent development, the company announced that it has raised $75M in its Series C round of funding led by new investors Insight Partners alongside Menlo Ventures, and Citi Ventures. In addition, existing investor Goldman Sachs Asset Management also participated in this round.

With this development, Ryan Hinkle, Managing Director at Insight Partners, will be joining the company’s Board of Directors.

Speaking about Immersive Labs, Venky Ganesan, Partner at Menlo Ventures, says, “The labour crisis in cybersecurity is a hard problem to solve. To protect against ever-evolving threats, the cyber workforce must constantly expand and evolve. Immersive Labs helps large organisations confront this head-on by combining smart data analysis with targeted training. As a veteran cybersecurity investor, I find the opportunity for Immersive Labs to solve a massive problem with a horizontal solution exciting. The cybersecurity threat will only increase, making Immersive Labs future proof as they seek to help large enterprises educate and arm themselves against ever-evolving threats.”

Human cyber readiness platform

Founded in 2017 by James Hadley, Immersive Labs empowers businesses to continuously develop skills, including ethical web hacking; ethical infrastructure hacking; reverse engineering; IoT/firmware security; and advanced cyber warrior CTF Challenges for enterprises, government, defence, and law enforcement agencies.

The company, in a way, helps organisations to equip, exercise, and evidence human cyber capabilities. It builds cyber skills content that helps in critical thinking, problem-solving, and curiosity. The platform provides metrics that give security leaders insight into human cyber skills and readiness levels across their organisation as well as improve these through dynamic labs and crisis scenarios that track the threat landscape.

Explaining the cyber risk situation, Arvind Purushotham, MD and Global Head of Citi Ventures, says, “We believe strongly in the value of using people more strategically to help large organisations mitigate ever-growing cyber risk. Traditionally, this has been difficult; without effective data, it’s hard to know where to apply skills development and how to measure its success. This is why Immersive Labs’ vision is so compelling – it creates visibility into and optimises one of the most valuable assets in cyber defence, the human defenders.”

Immersive Labs is backed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Summit Partners, Insight Partners, Citi Ventures, and Menlo Ventures. Its clients include some of the largest companies in financial services, healthcare, and government, including HSBC, Vodafone, and the NHS.

Immersive Labs, which has now received $123M in venture funding, is growing at over 100 per cent year-on-year. And, since its inception, the company has grown to over 200 people, with joint operations HQs in Bristol and Boston.

Use of the funds

James Hadley, says, “This investment will allow us to add new analytical capabilities and content to provide a more detailed picture of skills across the growing breadth and depth of cyber exposure facing organisations, helping them measure and manage risk better.” 

The raised capital will help the company to accelerate its delivery of a progressive new Cyber Workforce Optimisation platform. The company believes that, since cyber risk is no longer confined to technical specialists, expert skills are now required across the entire organisation. From crisis management with executives, to secure software development amongst engineers and ensuring compliance in legal teams, the platform will use data insights to understand where skills are required and accordingly offer role-specific training. It will also enable board-level metrics and benchmarking.

Besides building the platform, Immersive Labs will also use the funds to expand its services internationally, triple global headcount to 600 in the next two years, and establish operations in new regions throughout APAC and Europe.