Before the COVID- 19 Pandemic, Living Security received 50 percent of its revenue from in-person cybersecurity training events.
But those events came to an abrupt halt. Yet, within six weeks, Ashley Rose, co-founder and CEO, and her team pivoted the company to online training and created Teams: CyperEscape Online to replace its Escape Room product, a gamified team training program.
The company had the right product at the right time and saw the adoption of its online cybersecurity training program skyrocket. In 2020, Living Security tripled its revenue and employee headcount and more than doubled its customer count. Its customers include JP Morgan, Target, MassMutual, MasterCard, CVS Health, Verizon, Hewlett Packard and more than 100 enterprises.
As more employees worked remotely than ever before, companies saw the need for additional training to keep their networks secure. And Living Security’s products met their needs, Rose said. She spoke Tuesday during a Beta Austin Funding Hour on Clubhouse.
That led to Living Security landing $14 million in a Series B round of funding recently. It comes less than a year after Living Security raised a $5 million Series A round led by Silverton Partners in Austin. The company has spent that money to strengthen its interactive cybersecurity training platform.
Updata Partners led the investment that included previous investors Silverton Partners, Active Capital, Rain Capital and SaaS Venture Partners.
“During the last three years, Living Security revolutionized security awareness training programs that were boring, ineffective, and implemented just to meet minimal compliance requirements,” Rose said in a news release. “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.”