Citi Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of financial services firm Citi, took part in a $75m series C round for UK-based cybersecurity training platform operator Immersive Labs yesterday.
The round was led by private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners and included investment bank Goldman Sachs’ Asset Management subsidiary and VC firm Menlo Ventures.
Immersive Labs’ cloud-based cyber workforce optimisation platform enables the employees of organisations to measure and improve their cybersecurity skills, using data analysis to detect skill gaps in organisations and recommend role-specific training.
The company’s customers include the UK’s National Health Service, mobile network operator Vodafone and financial services firm HSBC.
The funding will go to strengthening Immersive Labs’ technology and expanding its business internationally, establishing new operations in Europe and the Asia Pacific region. It also plans to triple the number of its employees to 600 over the next two years.
The series C round increased the company’s total funding to $123m. It closed a $40m series B round in November 2019 led by Summit Partners and backed by Goldman Sachs, the latter having led an $8m series A round in January that year, participating alongside undisclosed private investors.
Arvind Purushotham, head of Citi Ventures, said: “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 is 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.”