Next generation email security startup Ironscales raises $15 million Series B to detect and defeat phishing attacks using AI

IRONSCALES, a SaaS startup with comprehensive phishing mitigation solution designed to protect your enterprise from cyber attacks, has closed a $15 million Series B to scale its North American sales and marketing teams, while continuing to invest in ongoing research and development of its AI-driven anti-phishing platform. The round, which was led by returning investor K1 Investment Management, brings the total funding raised to more than $25 million since inception in 2015.

Founded in 2014 by Eyal Benishti, the Tel Aviv, Israel-based IRONSCALES is a rapid automated phishing response platform startup that helps organizations where its email security hurts most, with post-message delivery detection and response. It’s hybrid human intelligence (HI) and machine learning solution gives end users and security professionals the right training, tools, and intelligence – all with one-click resolution from a single platform – to hunt, log, alert, analyze, and remediate phishing attacks.

IRONSCALES is currently approaching the 1000 customer milestone led by a global channel partner program. Since its Series A in December 2017, IRONSCALES revenues have increased by triple-digits.

“While email phishing is the oldest and most recognizable cyberattack technique, it remains an extremely complex problem that today requires the power of both artificial and human intelligence in an ongoing cycle of innovation for it to have any positive effect on an organization’s security posture,” said Eyal Benishti, IRONSCALES founder and CEO. “K1 has always believed in our vision for modernizing email security, and we’re thankful once again for their continued deep operational assistance as IRONSCALES continues to build out our US operations.”

Propelled by a global channel partner program, IRONSCALES has experienced triple-digit revenue growth over the past 12 months. Its award-winning advanced phishing threat protection platform has attracted nearly 1,000 customers across financial services, healthcare, retail, education and other industries. Additionally, its channel program currently boasts more than 50 partners spanning leading resellers, distributors, MSPs and MSSPs around the world. The company employs people in Tel Aviv, across Europe and at its North American headquarters in Atlanta and plans to more than double its headcount in the coming months.

The global email security market is expected to surpass $18 billion by 2023, as businesses of all sizes seek to reduce the inherent cyber risks posed by malicious messages. In recent years, those risks have been amplified due to vulnerabilities spurred by the acceleration of enterprise cloud migration and the proliferation of advanced phishing techniques, such as business email compromise, polymorphism and ransomware, which are built to easily defeat traditional human and technical controls, such as secure email gateways.

“Since we initially partnered with, Eyal and the rest of the team, the company has performed exceptionally, tripled its revenue with US revenue growing more than 10 times in the previous 12 months alone,” said Hasan Askari, Managing Partner at K1. “IRONSCALES’ differentiated method of phishing prevention, detection and remediation has clearly resonated with enterprises. We’re thrilled to continue to support IRONSCALES as the company builds on the impressive momentum that they’ve exhibited over the past few years.”

IRONSCALES hybrid human intelligence (HI) and machine learning solution gives end users and security professionals the right training, tools, and intelligence – all with one-click resolution from a single platform – to hunt, log, alert, analyze, and remediate phishing attacks. To do so, IRONSCALES learns how both users and attackers behave over time to provide constant innovation, giving everyone real-time visibility and real-time control to detect and stop phishing attacks of all types. This decentralized approach makes anti-phishing effortless and seamless, providing security professionals and end users with full protection against all types of phishing threats.

Earlier this year, IRONSCALES released the email security industry’s first anti-phishing mobile app for iOS and Android, empowering security teams to quickly make time-critical decisions from their mobile devices. In 2018, IRONSCALES was awarded the AI-Powered Email Security Innovation Award by Frost & Sullivan and named the Best Enterprise Email Security Solution by the Cybersecurity Breakthrough Awards.