Zachary Eikenberry has noticed a shift in how companies are thinking about cybersecurity training recently.
Before, it was considered more of a “vitamin” boost. But now, Eikenberry said enterprises are viewing it as a necessary painkiller.
“The cybersecurity buyer is recognizing that no matter how many technology tools are used – every company, everywhere must begin to effectively train their employees,” Eikenberry told Hypepotamus.
Data breaches and cybersecurity threats make national headlines almost weekly, with software company Brightly and even the US Department of Transportation having dealt with data breaches recently. Often, company data breaches happen through employees and their devices, making training and detection crucial.
Hook Security, where Eikenberry serves as CEO and co-founder, is riding this wave of momentum around cybersecurity training. The startup, which is headquartered in South Carolina and has a large employee presence in Florida, is staying within the region for its latest round of funding. The four-year-old startup just announced it closed a $5 million seed round from lead investor Tampa Bay Ventures, a young VC firm in Florida.
The startup went through Tampa Bay Wave’s CyberTech|X Accelerator Program in 2021.
Tampa Bay Ventures’ Andreas Calabrese said that the firm “believes that Hook Security’s proprietary methods, including PsySec®, represent the future of the industry and offer a unique approach to fighting cybercrime.”
Some might recognize Hook Security as a presenting company at Venture Atlanta in 2022. We last spoke to the Hook Security team in October of last year, as the startup was seeing an uptick in the number of enterprise customers interested in what they were building in the cybersecurity world. Here in 2023, Eikenberry said the startup has raised this recent round of funding to keep up with inbound demand and growth.
“From our partnership with AWS in addition to our many channel partners, we were struggling to keep up as our segment of the cybersecurity landscape experiences outsized growth in spite of any macroeconomic challenges,” he said.
Eikenberry said that the $5 million investment will be used to maintain the startup’s “3X+ growth rate heading into 2024” and will be “more rocket fuel” as the team grows. Those you want to join that “rocket” should check out the company’s open job posts.
