Exclusive: Cybersecurity training platform SafeStack raises $3.6m

Community-centric online training platform SafeStack has raised $3.6 million in a follow to its pre-seed to growing its international expansion across 34 countries.

The round led by Blackbird Ventures other participants in the round included NAB Ventures, Carthona Capital and Jelix Ventures which led their seed round.

With security becoming one of the most critical issues facing businesses, SafeStack bridges this gap by giving everyone working in software development teams the skills and knowledge to weave in security as they build and maintain quality software.

SafeStack training consists of bite-size secure development modules and hands-on labs for learners to test concepts and knowledge as they complete the program. Since its launch in 2020 the product has been used by 360 organisations across 34 countries with customers in Australia including Octopus Deploy, Prospa and Assignar.

Laura Bell Main is the founder and CEO of SafeStack told Digital Nation Australia said the company is on a global push.

“We have a great product, we have a lot of organisations who really speak highly of it and use it every day. But we have this entire world out there who need it,” she said.

Security and technical people felt like developers were allergic to sales, according to Bell Main where they would be hesitant to cold callers and explicit marketing.

She said expanding a product like SafeStack means they have to constantly be authentic for a consistent period of time.

“This funding allows us to do marketing and sales and growth, but not as we know it, it's much more focused on the value and connecting with our audience, who we call the sleeping giant, less than 2 percent of the dev teams out there are actually doing anything about security,” she said.

Apart from international expansion, Bell Main added that the funding will also go towards their student sponsorship program, free training and growing their content and offerings.

Bell Main said there was a gap in the market when it came to cybersecurity training and education, so she developed SafeStack.

She said, “The approach we take with SafeStack is that engineers are super smart people. They're already juggling performance, scaling and usability.

“We don't need to teach them how to be technical people, they already know this, all we're doing is changing the way they think about building software, so that they can add security into that measure of quality alongside all those other things.”

Phoebe Harrop at Blackbird Ventures said, “What stood out to us was the breadth and variety of SafeStack's global customer base which has grown to hundreds of companies in less than two years. Despite their diversity, these companies share an understanding that secure development starts with people.

“It's more important than ever that everyone who touches software development understands and considers security as they build. Led by the unstoppable Bell Main, SafeStack is making security a team sport."