London-based cybersecurity startup OutThink raises $10 million to tackle human errors behind data breaches

Every year, businesses and organizations around the world spend enormous amounts of money on cybersecurity and data protection, but still lose billions of dollars to data breaches. A recent IBM study conducted by the Ponemon Institute found that data breaches cost American companies on average more than $8 million per incident, with big breaches (more than 50 million records) costing $388 million.

Many of the biggest breaches are the result of a shift in how the increasingly digitized economy operates. The other problem is what cybersecurity experts called the weakest link–human error. According to Verizon’s 2022 Data Breaches Investigations Report, 82% of data breaches involved a human element.

Another study also found that 90% of all data breaches are caused by human error. That’s why London-based cybersecurity startup OutThink is on a mission to help organizations identify and manage human risk and improve employee behavior.

OutThink is taking a new approach to cybersecurity. The startup has pioneered a new class of cybersecurity called human risk management that allows organizations to go beyond security awareness training and make people part of the solution.

On Tuesday, OutThink announced it has raised about €10 million to accelerate international distribution and expand its global footprint. The round, which brings the total investment in the company to $11.4 million, was led by AlbionVC, with participation from Forward Partners, Gapminder, Innovate UK, and TriplePoint Capital.

Founded in 2019 by CEO Flavius Plesu and a team of chief information security officers, security experts, and researchers, OutThink Human Risk Management SaaS platform combines human intelligence with data from existing security systems to identify risk patterns across an organization.

In a statement, OutThink CEO Plesu said, “The idea for OutThink was born out of frustration that existing solutions on the market were failing, yet it also came from a passionate belief that if we engaged people beyond traditional security awareness training into human risk management, we could make them the organization’s strongest defense mechanism,”

Organizations carried a “significant level of risk” despite considerable investment in cybersecurity technology and security awareness solutions, especially as remote working practices grow, OutThink said in a statement.

“The fact cybercrime continues to rise proves such conventional approaches aren’t working and there is an urgent need for a new, more effective approach.”