SoSafe GmbH today announced that it has raised $73 million in funding to expand the adoption of its namesake cloud platform, which helps companies train their employees to spot phishing attacks.

Phishing attacks are a type of cyberattack whereby hackers target a company’s employees with malicious emails designed to appear as legitimate messages. Because they’re deliberately structured to mimic legitimate business correspondence, malicious emails can be difficult for employees to spot.

Cologne, Germany-based SoSafe has developed a cloud platform that helps enterprises evaluate employees’ cybersecurity know-how by launching simulated phishing campaigns. For added measure, a company can simulate a malicious application login page to test whether workers might inadvertently share their login credentials with hackers.

Companies using SoSafe’s platform can customize phishing emails with their corporate branding to make detection more difficult. It’s also possible to customize other aspects of a phishing campaign to test specific cyberattack scenarios for which an organization’s information technology team may wish to prepare.

As part of its platform’s feature set, SoSafe provides a monitoring dashboard that enables information technology teams to track the effectiveness of simulated phishing attempts. Administrators can use the dashboard to identify areas for improvement in their company’s cybersecurity posture. 

SoSafe’s platform furthermore doubles as a cybersecurity training solution. When users click a simulated phishing email or login page, the platform launches a portal through which they can access 20 cybersecurity training tracks. Companies can customize the training materials as needed. 

Detecting phishing campaigns early helps organizations reduce the risk of a breach. If an enterprise spots a phishing campaign targeting one of its subsidiaries, it can take steps to help other business units fend off similar hacking attempts. SoSafe provides a feature that enables employees to route potentially malicious emails to the IT team, which can carry out analyses to determine if the company is being targeted by a new phishing campaign. 

More than 1,500 organizations have signed up for SoSafe’s platform so far. They include retail giant Aldi and NortonLifeLock Inc.’s Avira cybersecurity subsidiary.

“Challenging the existing paradigms in security awareness and human risk management, we have seen tremendous adoption of our platform and extraordinary growth,” said SoSafe co-founder and Managing Director Niklas Hellemann. 

SoSafe’s $73 million funding round was led by Highland Europe with participation from Acton Capital, Global Founders Capital and a number of angel investors. The investment will enable the startup to step up its competitive efforts against the other players in the cybersecurity training market.

KnowBe4 Inc., which also provides a platform that enterprises can use to simulate phishing campaigns, went public last April. The company achieved a valuation of more than $3.5 billion in its first day of trading after raising $152 million through the offering.

Arctic Wolf Networks Inc., the well-funded managed cybersecurity services startup, also has a presence in the cybersecurity training market. It joined the fray last May by launching an offering called Managed Security Awareness. The offering combines a phishing simulation solution with related services. 

Image: SoSafe