After a year of fast growth, Living Security today announced it has closed a $14 Million Series B round to continue its expansion beyond cybersecurity awareness training and further develop its groundbreaking human risk management platform.
The investment was led by Updata Partners and includes previous investors Silverton Partners, Active Capital, Rain Capital and SaaS Venture Partners. Jon Seeber, General Partner at Updata, will join the Living Security board of directors as part of the deal.
"During the last three years, Living Security revolutionized security awareness training programs that were boring, ineffective and implemented just to meet minimal compliance requirements," said Ashley Rose, CEO and co-founder of Living Security. "Now, we are leading the charge to use behavioral data and analytics to measure and manage human risk. At the same time, we can deliver powerful insights to senior leaders and board members, and provide predictive interventions to employees. Our goal is to transform people from risks to assets in the defense against cyber attacks."
The rise of remote work has expanded the attack surface for cyber criminals, and company employees frequently provide an entry point into the enterprise's network, whether through social engineering, phishing or other methods. Living Security plans to use the new funding to rapidly expand market share in the human risk and awareness category, to build upon its record of innovation by developing its Unify human risk management platform, and to use behavioral data and analytics to spot vulnerabilities, ultimately predicting where attacks might occur. The company has been working with its existing enterprise customers to build the Unify platform, which will be released later this year.
This investment comes less than a year after Living Security raised a $5 million Series A round to strengthen its interactive cybersecurity training platform. In 2020, Living Security tripled its revenue and employee headcount and more than doubled its customer count, reflecting sizable expansion within the existing customer base through a more scalable platform. More than 100 enterprises rely on Living Security's platform, including CVS Health, MasterCard, Verizon, MassMutual, Biogen, AmerisourceBergen, Hewlett Packard, JP Morgan and Target.
Alongside its cybersecurity training platform, Living Security also led the market in gamified team training with its Escape Rooms product. When the pandemic hit, Living Security successfully brought its in-person training sessions online through the launch of Teams: CyberEscape Online, which delivers the award-winning, engaging and gamified training programs to workers regardless of their location.
Humans are the No. 1 security risk enterprises face, and leadership is missing the visibility required to take action.
"The team at Living Security has proven they can build great technology and innovate quickly to capitalize on new opportunities and demand," Seeber said. "This investment reflects our confidence in their talent and expertise, and in their ability to execute on their vision for human risk management with Unify. We're excited to help them continue to thrive in this expanding and critical market."
In addition to bringing the new human risk management platform to market, Living Security is also investing in go-to-market resources to expand geographic reach and scale both direct and channel sales efforts.
"We're proud of what we've accomplished in just four years since Ashley and I founded Living Security," said Living Security Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder Drew Rose. "But we are not stopping. We are committed to continuing to scale our core training platform and innovating with Unify and human risk management."
About Living Security
Founded in 2017, Living Security's mission is to help prevent cybersecurity breaches with a human risk management platform that does more than just meet compliance needs. It truly changes behavior. Living Security believes empowering people is the key to ending breaches. Gamified learning and immersive experiences engage and educate users, while the science-backed, tech-enabled platform uniquely provides CISOs the ability to measure effectiveness and program ROI.
Named one of Austin's Best Places to Work, the Living Security team is composed of 50+ cybersecurity professionals committed to transforming security awareness training as we know it and turning end users into the enterprise's greatest asset against cybercrime. Living Security is trusted by security-minded organizations like CVS Health, MasterCard, Verizon, MassMutual, Biogen, AmerisourceBergen, Hewlett Packard, JP Morgan and Target. Learn more at www.livingsecurity.com.
About Updata Partners
Updata Partners is a leading technology-focused growth equity firm in Washington, DC. Led by an investment team averaging more than 25 years of technology experience, Updata invests in high-growth software and software-driven businesses where the combination of capital and operating experience will help accelerate success. To learn more, visit www.updata.com.
