KnowBe4 hits sales record

Increased business demand for cybersecurity training is driving double-digit sales gains at KnowBe4.

The Clearwater security awareness training firm said sales were up 61 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to Q4 2017, and the three months that ended Dec. 31 were the most successful quarter to date for the company.

KnowBe4 did not release specific dollar amounts for either the fourth quarter or the full year of 2018, but in November, the company said sales had topped $100 million so far in 2018. That’s a significant increase over the $64.5 million in sales KnowBe4 had for all of 2017, according to Inc. magazine, which ranked the company No. 96 on the Inc. 5000.

KnowBe4, founded in 2010, says its technology and training turns corporate workers into “human firewalls” who can recognize and avoid cyber threats and reduce risk. Customer accounts also reached record levels, just short of 23,000 worldwide, the company said.

Stu Sjouwerman, CEO, KnowBe4

The company is constantly innovating its platform and creating new products to meet the needs of information technology security professionals, Stu Sjouwerman, CEO, said in news release.

“Recently, we launched an AI [artificial intelligence]-based product that identifies social engineering risks and measures the effectiveness of our new-school approach to security awareness training,” Sjouwerman said. “We also introduced PhishER, a new product that helps organizations to quickly investigate email threats reported by their employees.”

The company also hired Rosa Smothers, a former technical intelligence officer for the Central Intelligence Agency, to lead KnowBe4’s federal practice efforts.