PRESS RELEASE — CHANNEL PARTNERS CONFERENCE & EXPO, LAS VEGAS, April 11 — HacWare (Plexiglass Meeting Room 20), a machine learning cybersecurity awareness company, lands $2.3M (USD) oversubscribed seed financing to fuel API based security training to help companies understand how to avoid the evolving dangers of improperly managing their digital identities and provide lean security teams with an effortless way to combat phishing attacks.

The significance of making this announcement on April 12th, Identity Management Day, is phishing attacks are the leading cause of identity theft. According to the Identity Theft Research Center (ITRC) in 2021, 294 million people had their data compromised because of ransomware and phishing attacks. HacWare seamlessly integrates with Google Workspace and Outlook 365, allowing security teams to start smart employee training in minutes, thus eliminating the time, cost, and steep learning curve normally associated with replacing cybersecurity software entirely. HacWare’s clients typically launch in less than 15 minutes, a distinct advantage over other security awareness platforms that can take weeks to begin cybersecurity training for their employees. HacWare’s customers have seen a 60% reduction in malware outbreaks and a 40% reduction in labor costs.

“During the pandemic, Security teams had to do more with less. They were asked to accelerate digital innovation strategies to keep their business operating during the quarantine. Most importantly, they had to defend their remote workforce from phishing and ransomware attacks,” said HacWare’s founder and CEO Tiffany Ricks. “As a former ethical hacker, I saw first-hand how employees can unknowingly make it difficult for security teams to stop cybercriminals from stealing resources because they lack the proper training. Unfortunately, the Russia-Ukraine conflict will cause attacks to evolve rapidly as cyberwar criminals are looking for opportunities to stop companies from operating and spreading false information. I am excited that our A.I. platform will  help global workforces to combat cybercrime like never before.”

HacWare plans to use this new investment to expand its developer network and offer more tools to integrate its API with existing cybersecurity and HR platforms. HacWare is committed to providing smart training that is personalized and changes vulnerable behavior into strengths. The investment is led by Elevate Capital, with participation from 2.0 Ventures, Aura Innovation Fund, Chai Angels, and strategic scouts.

“We are impressed with HacWare’s innovative and targeted approach to protecting workforce data from cybersecurity threats and phishing attacks,” said Nitin Rai, Elevate Capital founder and managing partner. “Using A.I. technology and a powerful security education system, HacWare turns ‘risky security habits into strengths’ and helps reduce malware outbreaks. Elevate Capital is thrilled to lead this investment and to work with Tiffany and her team—continuing our commitment to support underserved minority and Black women entrepreneurs with early-stage funding.” Nitin Rai will be joining HacWare’s Board of Directors.

“Businesses need a flexible, modern, and intelligent cybersecurity awareness and training solution, and that’s where HacWare delivers. We see the need for HacWare’s solution increasing exponentially in the coming years and are excited to support Tiffany as she helps businesses of all sizes secure their workforces through smart security awareness solutions,” said  Benson Metcaf, managing director at 2.0 Ventures.

According to Crunchbase in 2020, less than 0.35 percent of all VC funding went to black female founders.  “I may be the 114th black female founder to raise over $1M in venture capital but I won’t be the last. I don’t focus on what they say black women and minorities can’t do. I am proving them all wrong! I hope I am inspiring more black women to dream and build big scalable businesses,” said Tiffany Ricks.

In honor of Identity Management Day, HacWare is offering the developer R&D plan completely free to software developers.

About HacWare
HacWare is the future of cybersecurity training because we are solving the root cause of data breaches… Human Error! HacWare makes it super easy for lean security teams and security developers to provide AI-powered cybersecurity user training solutions that are 100% automated. This smart technology helps busy workforces to learn about cybersecurity threats and learns how to protect themself from spear-phishing attacks and Business Email Compromised (BEC) scams. HacWare uses cloud technology, A.I. supervised learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to identify internal risks to email hacks. Then auto-generate personalized phishing campaigns to keep employees alert and educated. HacWare’s products have helped companies around the world to combat advanced phishing attacks to reduce malware outbreaks by 60%. For more information about HacWare, visit www.hacware.com. To get in touch with HacWare’s investor relations team, message us at [email protected].

Hacware, Inc. Media Contact:
Gabby Quinn
[email protected]