London cyber firm CultureAI raises £8m to double workforce and ‘fix human error’

London-based tech company CultureAI has secured $10m (£7.7m) in a Series A funding round, co-led by Mercia Ventures and Smedvig Ventures.

The investment is set to propel CultureAI’s product development, double its workforce and support its expansion into the US market. With offices in London and Manchester, the cyber firm is aiming to eliminate human error as a source of security breaches in the workplace.

“Imagine having a team of thousands who deeply understand your business and its employees,” said James Moore, founder and chief executive of CultureAI.

“If this team could review, understand, and fix risks generated by each employee at source, breaches could be reduced by around 80 per cent. While it’s impractical to build such a team, we can emulate its effectiveness using intelligent technology,” he explained.

“Every day, one in four employees create cyber risks as they go about their jobs, from reusing passwords across shadow SaaS apps to oversharing intellectual property with AI tools. We’re all human and make mistakes.

“However just doing more security awareness training won’t solve this—we can’t out-train human error. That’s why we’re focused on creating a platform which detects and automatically fixes the full spectrum of workforce cyber risks through interventions and nudges,” Moore added.

CultureAI’s platform allows organisations to monitor real-time employee behaviours and check for human cyber risks across channels such as email and instant messaging. It has been adopted by clients including Revolut, RAC, Wickes, Delivery Hero, Clearbank, and Marie Curie.

Joe Knowles, partner at Smedvig Ventures added: “It is widely accepted that human error is the most prevalent vector for cyber-attacks and is poorly protected against by ineffective training programmes.

“CultureAI is pioneering this with its market-leading software, offering immediate visibility and mitigation of vulnerabilities.”

The company’s latest capital injection follows seed rounds of $4m (£3.1m) in 2021 and $5m (£3.8m) in 2023.

Adam Lovell, investor at Mercia Ventures said: “CultureAI is at the forefront of developments in the emerging field of human risk management. We believe the company is poised to achieve break-out growth. The funding will help it to further target a global audience and establish itself as a market leader.”