• CyberSmart closes £12.75 million Series B funding round to facilitate accelerated product development, strengthen channel partnerships and enable UK-wide and international expansion
• Round led by Oxx, with participation from British Patient Capital, Legal & General Capital, Solano Partners and returning investors IQ Capital, Eos Venture Partners and Winton Ventures 

LONDON, UK (23^rd February 2023) – CyberSmart, the category leader in simple and accessible automated cybersecurity technology for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), today announces the completion of its Series B funding round, raising an additional £12.75 million following its initial Series A investment of over £8 million. 

Oxx led the oversubscribed round, with participation from British Patient Capital, Legal & General Capital and Solano Partners, alongside IQ Capital, which backed the company since its seed stage, and other returning investors: Eos Venture Partners, Winton Ventures and Seedcamp. This financial backing will facilitate CyberSmart’s accelerated product development, strengthen channel partnerships, as well as propel the company’s expansion in the UK and internationally, across Europe, Australia and New Zealand. 

Established during GCHQ’s 2017 Cyber Accelerator Programme, CyberSmart offers a comprehensive, affordable and SME-tailored solution that addresses cybersecurity’s three pillars: people, processes and technology. Its intuitive platform, CyberSmart Active Protect, takes care of the technology aspect by automatically and continuously assessing enrolled devices against security and compliance standards. Customers are equally provided on-going support with internal policy creation and cybersecurity awareness training via the CyberSmart Academy tool.

As part of their product, CyberSmart also allows customers to qualify for cyber insurance protection, enabling them to mitigate and transfer residual cyber risk. By partnering with insurers Aviva and Superscript, CyberSmart customers get the added benefit of coverage at reduced premiums and policy excesses. In turn, the platform can support advanced cyber insurers by collecting ‘inside-out’ data on SME internal risk indicators, which could become valuable data differentiators for underwriters who currently rely on self-reported surveys. 

This matters because in the UK alone, a small business is successfully hacked every 19 seconds, and the threat is increasing in frequency and severity, due in part to the widespread move to remote working. For SMEs looking to insure against their cyber-risk, premiums are skyrocketing, and with the average cost of a security breach standing at £4,200, companies cannot afford to do nothing.

Since its launch in 2017, CyberSmart has grown rapidly, and currently protects over 4000 small businesses. Moreover, the company has experienced significant international demand, and in 2023, will enter Australia, New Zealand and the rest of Europe. 

Jamie Akhtar, CEO and Co-founder of CyberSmart, says, 

“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. In spite of the economic downturn, we are encouraged that some of Europe’s most reputable investors believe in, and are keen to financially support, CyberSmart’s mission to protect and empower the underserved SME market against cybercrime. More importantly, we are delighted that they trust us to deliver on that vision, and I look forward to seeing how much we can accomplish in the year ahead.”

Phil Edmondson-Jones, Partner at Oxx, says, 

“SMEs 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. CyberSmart’s category leading SME security product; combined with its unique ability to collect ‘inside-out’ data on real-time risk indicators, will propel the business to become a core part of the infrastructure for cyber protection and insurance. We are thrilled to support CyberSmart and its stellar team in driving urgent adoption in the market, and rapidly expanding internationally.”

Edmondson-Jones will also be joining the board at CyberSmart.

Catherine Lewis La Torre, CEO of British Patient Capital, says, 

“As cyber-attacks grow increasingly sophisticated, the technology needed to protect against them must do so as well. For many SMEs, this is a difficult challenge to tackle, either because of financial constraints or a lack of in-house expertise. CyberSmart was created to address this problem, providing not only affordable and easy-to-use cyber protection but also training, certification and insurance. We are delighted to be supporting such a dynamic and ambitious business on its growth journey.”

– ENDS –

Media Contact

Nicole Sigrist

[email protected]

About CyberSmart

Cybercrime is projected to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by the end of 2025, and 58% targets small businesses. Meanwhile, the cybersecurity gap between large enterprises with the resources to weather attacks and the SMEs who don’t, is widening.

CyberSmart was created to fix this problem. Protecting a business from cyber threats shouldn’t require expert knowledge or deep pockets. So, as well as offering the fastest route to government grade certification on the market, CyberSmart also provides simple, cost-effective technology, enabling SMEs to protect themselves without cyber expertise. Through strategic partnerships with reputable insurers, CyberSmart customers further benefit from cyber insurance coverage at reduced premiums and policy excesses.

Find out more about CyberSmart at: https://cybersmart.co.uk/

About Oxx 

Oxx is a specialist SaaS growth capital firm, backing Europe and Israel’s most promising B2B SaaS scale-ups. Oxx partners with a small and select group of B2B SaaS companies working to nail their go-to-market and build category leadership, with absolute dedication to the success of each company. Oxx’s diverse team of SaaS experts support companies in global expansion, scaling commercial operations and perfecting their growth engine. Headquartered in London and Stockholm, Oxx was founded by Richard Anton and Mikael Johnsson in 2017.

Find out more about Oxx at: https://www.oxx.vc/ 

About British Patient Capital

British Patient Capital Limited is a wholly owned commercial subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, the UK government’s economic development bank. Its mission is to enable long-term investment in innovative firms led by ambitious entrepreneurs who want to build large-scale businesses. Launched in June 2018, British Patient Capital has more than £3bn of assets under management, investing in venture and venture growth capital to support high growth potential innovative UK businesses in accessing the long-term financing they require to scale up. Find out more here. 

Find out more about British Patient Capital at: https://www.britishpatientcapital.co.uk/