BRISTOL, England and BOSTON — June 14, 2021 — Immersive Labs, the company empowering organizations to measure and improve cybersecurity skills across technical and non-technical teams, today announced it has closed $75m in Series C funding led by new investors Insight Partners alongside Menlo Ventures, Citi Ventures and existing investor Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
The investment will accelerate delivery of a progressive new Cyber Workforce Optimization platform. With cyber risk no longer confined to technical specialists, expert skills are now required across the entire organization. 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 inject role-specific training. It will also enable board-level metrics and benchmarking.
Immersive Labs, which has now received $123m in venture funding, currently counts organizations such as HSBC, Vodafone and the NHS as customers. Growing at over 100% year-on-year, it has recently been named in numerous industry and business awards as an innovation leader.
James Hadley, CEO and Founder of Immersive Labs, said, “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 needs to play their part in addressing a pervasive company issue. This requires unlocking and evidencing skills in a much broader group of people.
“The first step to achieving this lies in understanding where capabilities are lacking which, until now, has been impossible. 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 organizations, helping them measure and manage risk better.”
“With significant global customer and revenue growth over the last few years, Immersive Labs has established a strong position in the fast-developing cyber skills space,” said Ryan Hinkle, Managing Director at Insight Partners. “With influential leadership, an innovative product in a growing market, and strong user engagement, the company is in a position to continue to lead the cyber readiness market.” As part of the transaction, Hinkle will be joining the company’s Board of Directors.
As well as building out the platform, Immersive Labs will use the funding to expand its international presence, tripling global headcount to 600 over the next two years and establishing operations in new regions throughout APAC and Europe.
“The labor 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 organizations confront this head-on by combining smart data analysis with targeted training,” said Venky Ganesan, Partner at Menlo Ventures. “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 futureproof as they seek to help large enterprises educate and arm themselves against ever-evolving threats.”
Arvind Purushotham, Managing Director and Global Head of Citi Ventures, said, “We believe strongly in the value of using people more strategically to help large organizations 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 optimizes one of the most valuable assets in cyber defense, the human defenders.”
James Hayward, Managing Director in the Growth Equity team at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said: “Immersive Labs has proven itself to be a valuable partner for businesses looking to improve their resilience to cyber risks. Their growth and development in the three years since we initially invested has been impressive and we believe they have built a strong foundation for further growth.”
Since its founding in 2017, Immersive Labs has grown to over 200 people, with joint operations HQs in Bristol and Boston. For more information on the company visit immersivelabs.com.
About Immersive Labs
Immersive Labs is empowering organizations to equip, exercise, and evidence human cyber capabilities. We provide metrics that give security leaders insight into human cyber skills and readiness levels across their organization and improve these through dynamic labs and crisis scenarios that track the threat landscape. Immersive Labs is backed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Summit Partners, Insight Partners, Citi Ventures, and Menlo Ventures. Our customers include some of the largest companies in financial services, healthcare, and government, amongst others. For more information on Immersive Labs’ offering, please visit www.immersivelabs.com.
About Insight Partners
Insight Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight Partners has invested in more than 400 companies worldwide and has raised through a series of funds more than $30 billion in capital commitments. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on software expertise to foster long-term success. Across its people and its portfolio, Insight encourages a culture around a belief that ScaleUp companies and growth create opportunity for all. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.
About Citi Ventures
Citi Ventures harnesses the power of Citi to help people, businesses and communities thrive in a world of technological change. Headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, London, Palo Alto, Tel Aviv and Singapore, Citi Ventures accelerates discovery of new sources of value by exploring, incubating and investing in new ideas, in partnership with Citi colleagues, our clients, and the innovation ecosystem. The team focuses in six key areas: Financial Services & Technology, Commerce & Payments, Data Analytics & Machine Intelligence, Security & Enterprise IT, Marketing & Customer Experience, and Property Technology. Citi Ventures accelerates its portfolio companies’ ability to scale through collaboration with Citi’s global businesses and industry experts. For more information visit: www.citi.com/ventures
About Goldman Sachs Asset Management Growth Equity
Founded in 1869, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a leading global investment banking, securities, and investment management firm. As part of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Goldman Sachs Growth Equity focuses exclusively on investments in growth stage and technology-driven companies. The team has invested more than $13 billion in strategic capital for entrepreneurs and management to execute long-term growth plans since 1994. For more information, please visit http://www.growth.gs.com.
About Menlo Ventures
Menlo Ventures is a venture capital firm that strives to have a positive impact on everything we do. That’s why we support businesses including Carta, Chime, Harness, Poshmark, Pillpack, Roku, Rover, Uber, and Warby Parker that are reimagining life and work for the better. Over 44 years, we’ve grown a portfolio that includes more than 70 public companies, over 150 mergers and acquisitions, and currently have $5.5 billion under management. We invest at every stage and in every sector, with expertise in Consumer, Enterprise, and Healthcare. From developing market strategies to creating communities, we provide real impact where entrepreneurs need it most. When we’re in, we’re ALL IN.
