Germany’s SoSafe, an AI-powered cyber security platform, has raised $73 million in a Series B financing round led by US-based venture firm Highland Europe, bringing its total funding to date to $110 million and pushing its valuation to $400 million.
The new funding round underscores the growing importance of cyber security and the rising demand for solutions to address human error in the digital world. With this fresh round of financing, SoSafe is now well-positioned to accelerate its growth and market presence in Europe and North America.
Overview of SoSafe
SoSafe is a Germany-based cybersecurity company founded in 2018 that uses modern machine learning to detect and prevent cyber-attacks. It works as an early warning system for companies, alerting them when their systems are at risk from malicious actors. In December 2020, SoSafe raised $73 million in Series B funding led by Highland Europe, with participation from existing investors Target Global and Earlybird Venture Capital. This new round takes the company’s valuation to $400 million.
SoSafe’s protection technology specializes in combating people-based errors within companies that lead to data breaches or other security risks posed by personnel negligence or oversights. The company’s technology helps identify any policies set up by people within the organization that have led to unintentional issues such as holding confidential information unprotected on a public server or leaving sensitive objects exposed on public networks so they can be accessed and exploited by outside agents.
On top of its active alert services, SoSafe also offers services customized for different sectors of business in order to better protect against particular threats such as ransomware attacks on medical devices or phishing campaigns targeting school networks. Executed through automated workflows the company scrutinizes logs related with user activities to allow customers more transparency into how their personnel are interacting with organizational resources and data stores.
Overview of Highland Capital
Highland Capital Partners is a venture capital team of experienced investors focused on early stage investments across the technology spectrum. With over 20 years in the business, they have successfully invested in and supported over 120 companies. They are globally connected with a long track record in helping entrepreneurs grow their selling point, add value and push the boundaries of innovation.
Highland Capital was founded 23 years ago by its current managing director, Jim Gold. Throughout its history, Highland has regularly sought to be a leader in investing at the seed and early stage levels. Much of their focus currently rests on software-driven enterprise companies with global aspirations, including those based in Germany such as SoSafe.
The company’s latest partner at the time of this news article is Nina Axelrod who joined Highland Capital four months before this deal, bringing experience from McKinsey & Co and Warburg Pincus LLC. Highland invests at every stage across almost any sector within technology including software, hardware, internet/consumer business to name but a few. They champion passion and ambition as well as great operating experience when it comes to investing in entrepreneurs. Both these elements were tested to great acclaim after an intense selection process for German-based SoSafe’s Series B funding round led by Highland Capital which raised $73M for the company taking them confidently towards their goals of achieving an estimated $400 million valuation for the company.
Background
Germany’s SoSafe is an innovative cyber security company that has raised over $73 million in a Series B funding round, led by Highland Europe. This new round of funding brings the company’s total valuation to $400 million and puts the company in a unique position in the cyber security space.
SoSafe has grown rapidly in the past few years with a mission to address human error in cyber security by making digital security and privacy easy and accessible for users.
Germany’s SoSafe raises $73M Series B led by Highland to address human error in cyber
SoSafe, a cybersecurity technology firm headquartered in Berlin, Germany, was founded with a mission to better protect businesses and individuals from cyberthreats. The company’s flagship product is an AI-based software platform that can detect and protect against cyber threats caused by human error. The software also offers tools for preventing fraud and data loss due to malicious actors or other factors.
Catering mainly to medium-size businesses, the innovative platform has attracted the attention of companies around the globe looking for cloud-based solutions that can provide real-time monitoring and protection from potential security threats. With its latest financing round, SoSafe has become one of the most valuable cybersecurity startups in Europe, raising a total of $124 million in venture funding across two rounds.
The company’s success reflects the importance of addressing everyday cyber threats caused by people making mistakes or failing to take proper security measures on their devices. By using its propriety technology and AI algorithms, SoSafe promises to be able to detect even small mistakes before they become larger problems. With its worldwide ambition set high, SoSafe continues to look for ways to expand its services into other markets beyond Germany.
SoSafe’s technology
SoSafe’s AI-driven technology allows organizations to detect and mitigate human errors in cyber security. SoSafe’s solutions analyze user data to identify anomalous user behavior or unauthorized personnel actions, as well as malicious intent. The company uses several technologies, including machine learning and natural language processing, to identify potential protocol violations in the company’s IT environment.
In addition, their technology is able to understand patterns of normal behavior in order to detect anomalies such as malicious actors attempting to access a system or using stolen credentials. The technology that SoSafe provides ensures that users and organizations can trust that their data is safe and secure.
SoSafe also works with partners who have access to advanced threat intelligence capabilities, which helps them develop more effective detection systems for new threats that may arise. With the help of these partners, SoSafe can create sophisticated solutions for protecting customer data against cyber threats. Additionally, through its work with strategic partners, SoSafe can deliver comprehensive security solutions across various verticals including healthcare, finance, retail and government sectors.
The Funding Round
Germany’s SoSafe has raised $73 million in a Series B funding round led by Highland Europe. This latest funding round marks the second big investment for SoSafe, bringing the total amount of their investments to $94 million
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The new round takes the company’s valuation to $400 million and will help the company reach its goal of addressing human error in cyber security.
Investors involved
Germany’s SoSafe announced it has raised a $73 million Series B funding round. The round was led by Highland Europe and included participation from existing investor Balderton Capital, as well as new investor Insight Partners. This brings its total funding to date to more than $100 million and values the cyber security company at $400 million.
This round is expected to fuel the growth of SoSafe’s flagship product ServeSol™ and positions the company for a Series C investment in 2021. The ServeSol™ platform provides unrivaled visibility into enterprise activities for true oversight into human processes. The platform works disruptively within enterprise teams, empowering human teams to reduce risk from human error in just hours, versus weeks or months normally taken with existing products on the market. With ServeSol™ AI-powered insights support regulatory compliance efforts, reduce productivity losses and provide real-time patterns across all operating models – workforce changes due to the pandemic bring yet additional complexity requirements that only ServeSol Technology meets comprehensively today.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented shift in work. SoSafe’s team will use this new capital to further pioneer its technology stack by further enhancing ServeSol™ AI capabilities and expanding its global reach into new markets such as Europe and South East Asia.
Valuation of the round
Germany-based cybersecurity startup SoSafe announced it has raised $73 million in its Series B funding round, led by Highland Europe. This funding round valued the startup at over $400 million. The company has also secured investments from Mubadala Ventures and follow-on investments from Seaya Ventures, Earlybird Venture Capital, HPE Growth Capital, Redalpine and Bauer Ventures.
The funding will be used to accelerate driverless security technology as well as business growth in North America and Europe. Founded in 2014, SoSafe is a cloud-native cybersecurity solution designed to protect organizations from cyber threats through automatic systems that identify human errors and remediate them before they become an issue. The company provides organisations with real-time detection of malicious code running in the cloud or on their traditional datacenters.
Previous investors such as Seaya Ventures have backed the company since its Series A in September 2019. Since then, SoSafe has entered strategic partnerships with leading industry players including Microsoft Azure Security Center, IBM Managed Security Services (MSS) and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). With this new capital injection SoSafe marks yet another significant milestone in its growth journey.
Impact of the Round
Germany’s SoSafe has completed a $73M Series B round that was led by Highland Capital and included other top-tier VC firms such as Accel and Sequoia Capital. The round takes the company’s valuation to $400 million, a significant jump from their $95 million Series A from just one year ago.
The success of the round is indicative of the growing demand for SoSafe’s security-as-a-service platform that offers a more personalised approach to cybersecurity. Let’s take a closer look at the impact of this round.
Impact on SoSafe
The Series B round of financing, which was led by Highland Europe, has raised SoSafe’s valuation to $400 million. Founded in 2017 by Tomer Shalev and Idan Cohen, SoSafe provides a specialized cybersecurity software geared towards preventing human errors in the workplace. Through proprietary technology that identifies potential insider threats due to negligence or malicious intent, SoSafe arms its users with tools to protect them from cyberattacks and data practices.
This new round of financing will be put towards product development and expansion between Germany and other European countries like France and Italy. Along with Highland Europe, the international round included notable investment from Salesforce Ventures, Meron Capital Group Limited (MCGL), 83North, Kensington Capital Partners Limited (KCP), Ionic Capital Ltd., Hello Tomorrow Deep Tech Fund with participation from existing investors BatteryVentures / Israel Growth Partners & GLP Ltd./Healthy Ventures.
The successful round was said to be driven by passion for the team and its offering as well as the company’s sustainable business model which is driven by ARR growth. The company has also seen considerable uptake among leading automotive customers in addition to other enterprise customers across Europe including several large eCommerce players. According to Tomer Shahal CEO of SoSafe this new $73 million funding brings the total capital raised since inception to $86 million and is a testament for the trust that partners have for SoSafe’s team as well as proof of their commitment for DACH Market leadership moving forward.
Impact on Highland Capital
The investment in SoSafe made by Highland Capital was a series B funding round and represented one of the largest investments ever made by Highland in a German company. The additional capital is expected to help SoSafe expand its software everywhere, and prove its effectiveness as a cyber security protection system on an international level.
Highland Capital’s venture arm, HCP Ventures, put in €50 million for the round total of €73 million, which puts SoSafe’s current valuation at €400 million (approximately $425 million). This is nearly double the valuation from SoSafe’s Series A from 2018. The funding could be a major boost for HCP Ventures’ portfolio’s performance and put it into year-over-year growth.
This significant increase in SoSafe’s valuation will likely lead to more investors taking an interest. The previously inaccessible venture space that only early seed funds like HCP Ventures had access to may soon become easier to penetrate – leading to more competition for Highland Capital and other seed investors who took part in the Series B round. Ultimately, this increased competition could lead to further advancements in cyber security technologies down the line through increased R&D spending or innovating processes like machine learning usage.
