Exclusive: Sosafe expands throughout Europe

The Cologne-based IT security start-up is opening four new locations and wants to significantly expand its business outside Germany. Several experienced managers are therefore joining the company.

The Ehrenfeldgürtel in Cologne doesn't necessarily look like a center of the German IT security scene. But it is precisely here, between an S-Bahn station, various Turkish restaurants and kiosks, that SoSafe, one of the most successful German start-ups in this sector, is based. And from this inconspicuous street in the western German metropolis, the start-up now wants to go out into the wide world: London, Paris, Amsterdam and Copenhagen are the destinations.

They have big plans at SoSafe, especially considering the age of the start-up. Niklas Hellemann founded it in 2018, together with Lukas Schaefer and Felix Schürholz. Hellemann, a psychologist by training, sees the reason for the company's rapid success in the gap in the market that SoSafe fills. The company does not offer special protection software like many other providers in this sector, but trains employees of other companies in dealing with data theft, phishing emails and other cyber attacks. The company calls its offering security awareness and training.

Specifically, this involves imitation phishing emails, for example, which redirect the employee who clicks on them to a page with educational content. The idea: instead of attending a seminar and quickly forgetting what they have learned, employees receive continuous training.

And the demand for such offers is increasing, especially in times of coronavirus. "Hybrid working has opened up a whole range of new gateways for attackers," says Niklas Hellemann. A survey conducted by management consultants Deloitte last year showed that more than three quarters of all decision-makers in politics and business are concerned about data theft and malware attacks. And the scams are constantly changing. The LKA Lower Saxony, for example, is currently warning of scam emails that are trying to scare recipients with alleged consequences of the Russian sanctions for private and company accounts.

SoSafe is growing rapidly in this environment and now has over 1,800 customers. The start-up also raised 73 million US dollars in its Series B financing round in January (Startbase reported). This was led by Highland Europe.

As Startbase exclusively learned, SoSafe is now planning to open four new locations in Europe in order to be able to provide customers with more tailored advice locally. "We already serve numerous multinational companies, so our platform already reaches many users outside of German-speaking countries," explains Hellemann. But the new locations are intended to help reach even more companies and also offer international employees a permanent workplace.

The start-up has set its sights on the Benelux countries and Scandinavia with an office in Amsterdam, the UK and Ireland with a location in London and Southern Europe with a center in Paris. A further office is also to be added in Copenhagen. The local teams are to be set up and managed by locally networked managers. The Benelux and Nordics sections will be headed by Bas Van Erk, who previously worked for the analysis companies Newzoo and Oxyme, among others. In London, Rohit Gami, previously Head of Inside Sales at compliance training provider Skillcast, will take the helm. Jean-Baptiste Roux, previously Manager at web analytics company AT Internet, will head up the Paris office. SoSafe was able to recruit Oscar Trelles, former Sales Manager of the market research company Instapanel, for the entire international expansion process.

Niklas Hellemann is optimistic that SoSafe's offering will also attract a lot of interest outside Germany. "We have a solution that is very much geared towards data protection and privacy, so our origin in the GDPR's home region is a clear advantage," he says. Expansion beyond this region is also being evaluated on an ongoing basis. "Basically, we see a global need to catch up on the human aspect of IT security, and that goes beyond Europe too," he explains.