KnowBe4 raises $31M

Clearwater cybersecurity training firm KnowBe4 raised $31.56 million in an equity offering in February, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

It is unclear if the equity raise is related to the recent announcement of an investment by KKR and Ten Eleven Ventures in KnowBe4.

KnowBe4 declined to comment on the SEC filing, and KKR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On March 1, KnowBe4 said it would receive a “sizable” minority investment from KKR,  one of the largest private equity firms in the world, and from Ten Eleven Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on cybersecurity investments. The size of the deal was not disclosed, but it valued KnowBe4 at $800 million, a news release said.

Fortune estimated the investment at $50 million.

In a March 13 Form D filing with the SEC, KnowBe4 said it sold $31.56 million in equity, options and warrants to two investors on Feb. 27. Nearly $10.3 million of the proceeds would be used for an equity repurchase, the filing said.

KnowBe4 would not say if the regulatory filing was related to the KKR and Ten Eleven investment. “Details of the deal are confidential,” a spokeswoman for KnowBe4 said.

KKR did not immediately respond to a request for information.

KnowBe4, founded in 2010 and led by CEO Stu Sjouwerman, has received two previous rounds of funding — an $8 million venture capital investment from Elephant Partners in January 2016, and a $30 million Series B investment led by Goldman Sachs in October 2017. The company had $64.5 million in 2017 revenue, according to Inc. magazine. KnowBe4 said it had revenue growth of 110 percent in 2018.

The company helps organizations reduce their risk of cyberattack by educating users to recognize, report and avoid threats.