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. The platform uses data insights to understand where skills are required and inject role specific training, such as offering crisis management for executives, software development for engineers and compliance for legal teams. It will also enable board-level metrics and benchmarking. 

Founded in 2017, Immersive Labs, which has now received around €101 million in venture funding, currently boasts 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 need 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 cyber security 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 cyber security 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.” 

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.”