Hack The Box cybersecurity training community Raises $10.6m

Hack The Box (@hackthebox_eu) announces a Series A investment round of $10.6 million led by Paladin Capital Group (@Paladincap) and joined by Osage University Partners (@OUP_VC), Brighteye Ventures (@brighteyevc), and existing investors Marathon Venture Capital. The round will support the company’s growth as it establishes its presence in the US market and further expands its product portfolio for both individuals and businesses.

Hack The Box’s journey started in 2017 with the founding team’s aspiration to make cybersecurity training accessible to everyone. Today, Hack The Box has the world’s largest ethical hacker community with over 500,000 platform members with diverse IT backgrounds, from beginners to experts. The players are challenged to learn by doing by “attacking” virtual vulnerable labs and advance their adversarial security skills in a simulated, gamified, and safe test environment.

Over 19 million hours of total “play” time and 2.4 million “flag submissions” since launch, one million Parrot Linux OS installs in just the last quarter, and over 1,000% ARR growth over the past two years while remaining profitable, are only some of the key indicators of the company’s success so far. “We are delighted with our growth and community support but we are most proud of having created a platform that turns ethical hacking into a true passion. Everything we do is geared around creating a safer Internet by empowering corporate teams and individuals to create unbreakable systems. Hack The Box is proud to train the world’s best,” stated Haris Pylarinos, Hack The Box Co-Founder and CEO. 

Gibb Witham, Senior Vice President, Paladin Capital Group commented, “We’re excited to be backing Hack The Box at this inflection point in their growth as organizations recognize the increasing importance of an adversarial security practice to combat constantly evolving cyber attacks. Recent headlines show that attackers will go to any length to advance their capabilities. Hack The Box keeps enterprises and government customers up-to-date on the latest adversary methods and tradecraft so that attackers are the only ones caught unprepared.”

More than 800 organizations (including governments and Fortune 500 companies across every industry vertical) and 550 academic institutions from all around the world have joined the platform to level up their adversarial capabilities. Aris Zikopoulos, Hack The Box Co-Founder and CCO, stated, “We are helping the world’s largest organizations be secure by having a well-trained and attack-ready cyber force. From day one, our vision has been to build a platform that turns IT professionals into cyber superheroes that know how to react when in front of any attack or vulnerability. The true hacking mindset is built with persistence and continuous self-improvement, not overnight.”

Hack The Box has a relentless focus on product quality and rapid innovation. “Innovation runs in the team’s DNA,” said James Hooker, Hack The Box Co-Founder and CTO. “With this investment, our R&D function will grow 4x in the next 18 months so we can continue to define the market by introducing groundbreaking features across every single product. Our engineering team is committed to delivering the industry’s most advanced and consolidated platform, uniting the entire product portfolio of Hack The Box.”

Hack The Box’s 360° product suite offers exploratory and guided training, real-time adversarial gaming, a cloud-based security OS, advanced analytics, targeted talent acquisition and assessment, and astounding community engagement. The company continues to introduce new products, most recently releasing Hack The Box Academy, which surpassed 250,000 visitors in its first three months. The new learning platform is driven by a promising product roadmap that entails top-notch training content releases and groundbreaking features, aiming to place Academy as the new industry standard in cybersecurity training and certification.