London's CyberSmart has closed a £12.8 million series B round led by venture capital firm Oxx.
Legal & General Capital, the corporate venturing arm of insurer Legal & General, participated in the round alongside British Patient Capital, Solano Partners, IQ Capital, Eos Venture Partners, Winton Ventures, and Seedcamp.
CyberSmart is pitching an end-to-end cyber security suite that starts with protecting enrolled technology across the customer's organisation, with extra support to qualify cyber security for insurance coverage for residual risks. Customers are also offered "on-going support" and awareness resources.
The company was founded eight years ago and currently protects more than 4,000 small businesses. This year, it will add clients in Australia, New Zealand and the rest of Europe, using proceeds from the series A round, while also strengthening its channel partnerships and product.
We often say cyber security is holding back digital transformation objectives, but it's always an eye-opener to see the actual impact quantified in hard figures.
In the UK, it's reckoned a small business suffers a cyber breach every 19 seconds. And following the switch to remote working, many small tech businesses simply have been unable to hold back the tide.
Even if there is no financial cost from a cyber attack, perhaps because it was successfully prevented, SMEs still face higher premiums to receive insurance coverage in worst-case scenarios. An average premium in the UK is said to cost around £4,200.
CyberSmart is a product of UK intelligence gathering body GCHQ's cyber accelerator programme, having graduated in 2017.
Jamie Akhtar, CEO and co-founder of CyberSmart, said: "Once again, we were blown away by the interest we received from investors, but as we carve our niche in the market, we remain steadfast in being selective of shareholders whose values and ambition align closely with our own."
Phil Edmondson-Jones, Oxx partner, who is joining the board of directors in conjunction with the round, added: "SME's are notoriously under-protected from the rising cyber threat, and existing cybersecurity and insurance propositions are neither fit for purpose nor affordable.
"We have spent a long time searching for the right business model that can enact a step-change in this important & enormous market."
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