Hack The Box Starts the Year off Strong with an Investment Round of $55 Million

The leading gamified cybersecurity upskilling and talent assessment platform, closed an impressive Series B investment round of $55 million led by Carlyle, joined by the Endeavor Catalyst Fund - the rules-based, co-investment fund of Endeavor - alongside Paladin Capital Group, Osage University Partners, Marathon Venture Capital, and Brighteye Ventures.

Hack The Box, the most massively growing hacking playground and cybersecurity community in the world and one of Greece’s fastest-growing tech startups has raised more than $70 million so far, allowing over 1.7m platform members to learn, hack, play, and exchange ideas & methodologies creating a strong community while at the same time, working with major companies and countries globally in the field of computer security. 

The Story

Hack The Box was launched back in 2017 by co-founders Haris Pylarinos, James Hooker, and Aris Zikopoulos, and in less than 4 years the platform turned into the most promising hacking community in the world. 

In 2021, the company announced its Series A investment round of $10.6 million led by Paladin Capital Group, joined by Osage University Partners (OUP), Brighteye Ventures and existing investors Marathon Venture Capital. Later in the year, founder and CEO, Haris Pylarinos was selected as an Endeavor Entrepreneur after an International  Selection Panel that concluded on his global prospects and allowed him to join the global Endeavor Network, broadening the company’s network and reach internationally. In July, the company hit the milestone of 100 employees.

Hack The Box entered 2023 gloriously, announcing a world-class Series B investment round of $55 million led by Carlyle, alongside Paladin Capital Group, Osage University Partners, Marathon Venture Capital, Brighteye Ventures. Endeavor Catalyst, our rules-based, co-investment fund that invests exclusively in Endeavor Entrepreneur-led companies, has also joined this round investing, the maximum amount allowed. Hack The Box is the first investment of the Fund for 2023 and the 6th Endeavor Greece Entrepreneur supported by Endeavor Catalyst. Its previous investments include Hellas Direct (Fund I), Blueground (Fund II), Workable (Fund II), Nova Credit (Fund III), and Spotawheel (Fund III). Endeavor Catalyst has invested a total of $8 million in Greek startups.

Tripling in size over the last two years, Hack The Box has the largest global hacking community with more than 1.7 million platform members. With its thriving community being at the heart of the company, Hack The Box will continue to invest heavily in R&D. The company will execute against a product roadmap that entails top-notch content releases and groundbreaking features, making Hack The Box the ultimate reference point for cybersecurity professionals of all backgrounds, skill levels, and industries, allowing them to keep pace with the rapidly evolving cyber technology and threat landscape. 

Six years ago, Hack The Box’s vision to create a safer cyber world by making cybersecurity training fun and accessible to everyone was a crazy, big idea. Today it is a reality.  Hack The Box offers a superior 360° platform that not only enables individuals, businesses, government institutions and universities to level up their offensive and defensive security skills, but also provides access to job opportunities in cybersecurity, thus addressing the industry’s serious talent shortage. Providing mind-triggering, hands-on, and highly entertaining learning content that mimics real-world threat scenarios and features the latest up-to-date attack techniques and methods, Hack The Box is setting new standards in cybersecurity expertise.

“Our mission is to create and connect cyber-ready humans and organizations through highly engaging hacking experiences that cultivate out-of-the-box thinking,” said Haris Pylarinos, the CEO and co-founder. “The game in cyber has changed with defensive, reactive and recovery postures not being fit-for-purpose in the face of an ever-increasing and ever-evolving wave of sophisticated attacks. A new proactive offensive & defensive approach is needed to take the fight to cybercriminals rather than waiting to be hit. From individual security professionals to companies, this means adopting a ‘hacker mindset’, learning to think and act like an attacker. This is the kind of mindset that we cultivate through Hack The Box.”

Hack The Box in Numbers

Hack The Box is rocking the edtech hacking universe with 1.7 million platform members and over 1.4k organizations trained to date. The platform currently offers more than 450 training labs challenging entry-level to highly skilled hackers and has successfully organized more than 400+ Capture the Flag Competitions and events. 

The HTB family currently amounts to 180+ employees, almost half of which live in Greece, but also has a workforce in the UK, US, and other countries around the globe.

There are some things that cannot be put into numbers. The amazing working environment, the people-first mentality, and the passion for the company’s vision are only some of the elements that make Hack The Box unique.

To learn more about the history of Hack the Box from its co-founder and CEO, Haris Pylarinos, listen to the relevant Outliers Podcast.

About Hack The Box:

Hack The Box is a leading online gamified cybersecurity upskilling and talent assessment platform that allows individuals, businesses, government organizations and universities to level up their offensive and defensive security skills. Since launching in 2017, Hack The Box has brought together a global community of more than 1.7 million platform members, and has built a portfolio of more than 1,500 enterprise, government and university customers that utilize Hack The Box’s hands-on, self-paced, and gamified learning environment to take their cybersecurity skills to the next level. Our mission is to create and connect cyber-ready humans and organizations through highly engaging hacking experiences that cultivate out-of-the-box thinking. With constantly updated virtual labs, real-world scenarios simulation, CTF-style challenges, and multiplayer hacking games, Hack The Box is the reference point for all cybersecurity professionals. With a rapidly expanding footprint across the globe, Hack The Box’s headquarters are located in the UK with additional offices in Greece and the US.    

For more information, please visit hackthebox.com

About Endeavor Catalyst Fund:

Endeavor is the leading global community of, by, and for High-Impact Entrepreneurs — those who dream bigger, scale faster, and pay it forward. Driven by our belief that High-Impact Entrepreneurs transform economies, Endeavor is on a mission to build thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems in emerging and underserved markets around the world.

Endeavor creates a Multiplier Effect by inspiring high-growth founders to dream bigger, supporting and investing in them to scale faster, and providing a platform to pay it forward — thereby compounding their individual impact.

To sustain Endeavor’s long-term operations in a mission-aligned way, Endeavor created Endeavor Catalyst — a rules-based, co-investment fund, set up to invest in the same High-Impact Entrepreneurs that Endeavor supports. Today, Endeavor Catalyst is among the world’s top early-stage founders of startups-turned $1B+ companies (“Unicorns”) outside of the U.S. and China.