Back to stories

Our Investment in Immersive Labs: Unlocking Cyber Skills Across the Enterprise

June 14, 2021

The cybersecurity talent crunch is well documented and only expected to grow, with CyberCrime Magazine saying that the number of unfilled cybersecurity jobs could reach 3.5 million this year. If that statistic isn’t shocking enough, the same report states that, “Of the candidates who are applying for these positions, fewer than one in four are even qualified according to the MIT Technology Review.” With cyber crime on the rise, and the risk no longer confined to technical specialists, many businesses find themselves in a tough spot.

Enter Immersive Labs, Menlo’s newest cybersecurity investment. Immersive Labs empowers organizations to measure and improve cybersecurity skills across technical and non-technical teams. Immersive Labs’ SaaS delivers data-driven insights to understand where skills are required and then injects role-specific training. Founder and CEO James Hadley draws on his previous experience as a CISO and sees the unique value in ensuring both technical and non-technical staff play their part in addressing pervasive company issues. He believes the first step to unlocking skills begins with understanding where capabilities are lacking. Before Immersive Labs, this just wasn’t possible.

James Hadley, Founder and CEO

Immersive Labs has all the qualities we look for in a cyber investment. But, as an active cybersecurity investor, I’m most excited that Immersive Labs is solving a global problem with a horizontal solution that can be utilized across any number of sectors and roles. It is no longer the sole responsibility of an organization’s technical specialists to mitigate cyber risk.

The cybersecurity threat will only increase, making Immersive Labs future-proof as they seek to help large enterprises educate and arm themselves against ever-evolving threats. The company has grown tremendously, and their data-centric approach to mapping cyber skills to risk has resonated with customers including HSBC, Vodafone, and the NHS.  

We’re thrilled to invest in Immersive Labs’ $75M Series C and look forward to partnering with James and the entire team as they expand their Cyber Workforce Optimization platform.

As we welcome Immersive Labs to the Menlo portfolio, they join an incredible roster of cybersecurity companies backed by Menlo, including category leaders like  Abnormal Security, Appdome, BitSight, Dedrone, Signifyd, Sonrai Security, StackRox, Strata, and others. Cybersecurity is a big focus for Menlo Ventures, and we continue to believe that great companies will emerge to fight an ever-changing threat landscape. You can learn more about how we evaluate cybersecurity opportunities by reading my Cybersecurity Checklist. And, if you are building a company that you believe might be a fit for Menlo, we’d like to hear from you.