Enterprise security firm Tessian Ltd. revealed today it has raised $65 million in new funding to accelerate platform development and hire more people.

The Series C round was led by March Capital and included Accel, Balderton Capital, Latitude, Sequoia Capital and Schroder Adveq. The round was raised at a valuation of $500 million.

Founded in 2013, Tessian pitches itself as pioneering a new approach to cybersecurity with “Human Layer Security,” an approach that considers that data breaches are mostly caused by some form of human error. Powered by machine learning, Tessian’s platform provides visibility into human security risks, automatically preventing security threats while continuously driving employees toward secure email behavior through in-the-moment security training.

The company’s platform uses behavioral intelligence models tailored to every employee by analyzing individuals’ communication patterns and behaviors online. Tessian uses the machine learning models to automatically detect security threats and prevent them from turning into breaches by notifying the employee of the risk. Over time, these alerts are said to help employees improve their security behaviors.

Tessian’s service secures people on email and automatically prevents threats such as phishing, business email compromise, data exfiltration and accidental data loss. The company says that enterprises, on average, see an 84% reduction in data exfiltration, and phishing simulation click-through rates drop to less than 1%.

With the COVID-19 pandemic and the switch to remote work, Tessian has seen strong growth, tripling its Fortune 500-level customer database in 2020. The company now has about 350 global customers across legal, financial services, healthcare and technology sectors. Notable clients include Arm Ltd., Affirm Inc., Investec Ltd. and RealPage Inc.

“In the same way we have firewalls to secure networks and endpoint detection and response platforms to secure devices, enterprises now need advanced security technology to secure their people,” Tim Sadler, co-founder and chief executive officer of Tessian, said in a statement. “People make 35,000 decisions every day; it just takes one wrong decision or one instance of human error for an employee to cause a catastrophic security breach.”

Tessian was last in the news in April when it announced a new Human Layer Risk Hub. The hub offers full visibility into each employee’s risk level and will enable team leaders within an organization to adopt a more tailored approach to employee security.

Including the new funding, Tessian has raised $123.7 million to date, according to Crunchbase.

Photo: Tessian