KnowBe4 Timeline

2023

February 2023 - KnowBe4 taken private by Vista Equity Partners

2021

April 2021 - KnowBe4 has a successful IPO.

2020

September 2020 - G2 Ranks KnowBe4 the #1 Platform for 5th Consecutive Quarter in the Fall 2020 G2 Grid Report for Security Awareness Training

August 2020 - KnowBe4 makes it in the Inc 500 for the 5th time in a row.  Also, KnowBe4 Celebrates 10 Years and 1,000 Employees by Planting 10,000 Trees Worldwide.

July 2020 - Q2 2020 is 25% over Q2 2019, despite the COVID-19 challenges.  June 2020 was a month of all-time highs. Highest sales day ever, highest sales month ever, highest PhishER sales, second best Quarter and amazing international sales. We also got: 1) Gold NYX Award in the E-learning category, 2) Silver Telly Award for “The Inside Man” security awareness training series, and 3) Two 2020 EdTech awards: Leadership and Cool Tools.  

April 2020 - Q1 2020 is 40% over Q1 2019. KnowBe4 was named a Leader in a new Forrester Wave™ report. We welcomed cybersecurity marketing leader Kara Wilson to our Board of Directors. Enabled all 884 KnowBe4 employees to work from home in just one day. Set up a new coronavirus and work from home resource center.

2019

November 2019 - KnowBe4 ranked number seven out of 50 on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work US SMB List, with an overall company rating of 4.8 Press Release here.

October 2019 - In the third quarter of 2019, KnowBe4 reached 55% growth over Q3 2018, increasing customer accounts to well over 28,000. Press Release here.

September 2019 - KnowBe4 wins numerous awards, including landing in the Inc 500 for the fourth time.  We are named No. 1 Best Workplace for Women. Renowned Gartner Analyst Joanna G. Huisman joins KnowBe4.  KnowBe4 acquired Twist and Shout Group to expand Live Action Video production.

July 2019 - KnowBe4 announced Q2 YoY 50% growth over Q2 2018, takes the No. 2 Spot in the Tampa Fast 50, and makes it No. 16 in the Florida Top 100 Best Companies List. 

June 2019 - KnowBe4 raises $300 million in a round led by KKR which values Knowbe4 at $1 billion "unicorn" level. Stu is named a Glassdoor Top CEO for 2019. IDG’s Computerworld announces KnowBe4 as a 2019 Best Places to Work in IT. KnowBe4 is also awarded the Network Computing Awards UK Security Training and Consultancy Provider of the Year.

April 2019 - KnowBe4's Q1 YoY sales grow 70% over 2018. Here is the blog post with the full update.  KnowBe4 gets chosen as Top Workplace for the fourth time in a row by the Tampa Bay TImes, and for the third consecutive year by the Tampa Bay Business Journal. 

March 2019 - KnowBe4 receives a sizable minority investment from leading global investment firm KKR that values us at more than $800 Million. Press release here. KnowBe4 Wins Cyber Defense Magazine Awards for Editor’s Choice Anti-Phishing and Next Gen Security Training.  SC Awards 2019 Names KnowBe4 CEO Stu Sjouwerman a Top Executive Leader of the Last 30 Years. KnowBe4 acquires El Pescador, a leading awareness training company in Sao Paolo, Brazil. 

January 2019 - KnowBe4 announces over 60% YoY growth for Q4 2018. Now 647 employees, and 23,000 customers worldwide, KnowBe4 is going stronger than ever.  This is the 23rd quarter of growth, you can see the graph at the KnowBe4 Blog. Highlights of Q4 are that we were named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Security Awareness Computer-Based Training, and that we introduced a new product called PhishER that allows SOC teams to prioritize reported suspect emails. 

2018

November 2018 - KnowBe4 is ranked #2 Largest Software Developers in Tampa Bay by Tampa Bay Business Journal. KnowBe4 was awarded #2 Best Workplaces for Women 2018 in Small and Medium Companies by Great Place to Work! 

October 2018 - KnowBe4 again almost doubles YoY sales in Q3 2018 for 22 straight quarters of growth. We rocketed up to the #96 slot of the Inc. 500 list, appearing for the third time in a row. Knowbe4 hired seasoned finance and tech executive Krish Venkataraman as CFO to support our rapid growth strategy. We released a massive upgrade of our platform which now includes AI and Machine Learning to deliver game-changing new Advanced Reporting and the Virtual Risk Officer functionality. Here is more detail about record-setting Q3. 

Aug 2018 - KnowBe4 appears on the Inc. 500 list for the third time in a row.

July 2018 - KnowBe4 doubles YoY sales for Q2 2018 for 21 straight quarters of growth. We acquired exploqii in Berlin which expands our footprint in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.  Achieved the #2 spot on the Cybersecurity Ventures 500 list, which names the hottest and most innovative cybersecurity companies.  Customer accounts are now 19,000+. We've made it onto Fortune's 100 Best Workplaces for Millennials list at #60. June showed highest-ever numbers in sales per day, week, month and quarter. Here is more detail about record-setting Q2. 

May 2018 - KnowBe4 gets awarded for Best Place To Work by Tampa Business Journal and breaks the 700 positive reviews at Gartner's Peer Reviews Site, more than all MQ leaders section competitors combined. 

April 2018 - KnowBe4's record Q1 2018 was our 20th straight quarter of growth with a YoY sales increase of 191%, and bringing customer accounts to well over 17,000. We acquired Popcorn Training and opened up a new office for our EMEA headquarters in the Netherlands. Here are more highlights. CBInsights finds KnowBe4 the best-funded Cyber Security startup in Florida. Click here for a map.

January 2018 - KnowBe4's record Q4 2017 was our 19th straight quarter of growth with a YoY sales increase of 255%, and bringing customer accounts to well over 15,000. We secured the #70 spot in Fastest Growing Company in North America on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 for 2017, and the #5 spot in Florida’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies.

2017

November 2017 - KnowBe4 Wins Frost & Sullivan Cyber Security Awareness Training Platform Customer Value Leadership Award (download their 10-page PDF here)  and reaches its first 7-million dollar month. 

October 2017 - KnowBe4's record Q3 2017 was our 18th straight quarter of growth and 263% year-over-year sales increase. We closed a $30 million Series B investment led by Goldman Sachs.  In the same week, Gartner positioned KnowBe4 as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Security Awareness Computer-Based Trianing. And oh, we acquired a company in our space: Securable.io.  

August 2017 - KnowBe4 established our UK subsidiary: KnowBe4 UK, LTD. We also made it back into the Inc 500 for the second year in a row.

July 2017 - The second quarter of 2017 was well over double that of Q2 last year, sales (bookings) was 232% compared to a year ago.  This marks our 17^th-straight quarter of growth. June was an all-time high month, and for the first time ever, we added more than 1,000 new customers in one month. Link to blog post and graph. 

June 2017 - KnowBe4 Moves From #38 to #6 On the Cybersecurity 500,  the list of the world's hottest security companies. More at the blog. We welcomed employee #300, here is the picture with #100, 200, and 300 ! 

May 2017 - Kevin Mitnick and KnowBe4 Stu Sjouwerman I did the Cyber Investing Summit Keynote At The NYSE. We showed how easy it is to clone a prox card, to send someone a phishing attack with a malicious PDF and last but not least, we showed the real WanaCry ransomware in action! More at the blog.

April 2017 - KnowBe4 reports record Q1 2017 performance, increasing overall year-over-year sales growth of 261 percent. This marks the 16^th-straight quarter of growth, driven by a continually increasing demand for its new-school approach to security awareness training because of its effective approach. Here is the Press Release with the graph. KnowBe4 also makes the No. 1 slot for 2017 in Tampa Bay's Best Place To Work for midsize companies.

March 2017 - KnowBe4 Appoints Former Gartner Research Analyst Perry Carpenter as Chief Evangelist and Strategy Officer. 
Perry Carpenter, former Research Director, Security & Risk Management and esteemed analyst at Gartner, has joined KnowBe4 as Chief Evangelist and Strategy Officer. Carpenter used to be in charge of the Magic Quadrant of the space KnowBe4 is in.  More at our blog. 

January 2017 - KnowBe4 has another blow-out Q4, Our year-over-year sales increase was 298% for Q4 2016, with a record number of over 750 new corporate accounts in December alone with a very robust 88% customer retention rate, rising to over 8,000 enterprise accounts. Check out the blog post with more highlights and the graph. KnowBe4 acquires The Security Awareness Company (SAC) and published a Press Release announcing this as a new Strategic Partnership.

2016

October 2016 - KnowBe4 beats its stellar Q2, growing 369% year-over-year in Q3, now has 6,000+ enterprise accounts and makes in Deloitte's Technology Fast 500.  Check out the blog post with more highlights and milestones. 

September 2016 - KnowBe4 makes it in the Florida Fast 100, #2  ranked by percent growth 2013-2015.  We released a key feature for Enterprise: Active Directory integration, which fully automates user management and saves administrators significant amounts of time. Also, KnowBe4 goes into Beta with AIDA™: (Artificial Intelligence Driven Agent™), which combines phishing, vishing, and smishing into a new attack vector we coined "aishing". 

August 2016 - KnowBe4 makes it in the INC 500, #139, a very strong debut on this famous list. 

July 2016 - KnowBe4 has a stellar Q2, growing 454% year-over-year, and expects to make it in the Inc. 5000 list. Check out the blog post with more highlights and milestones. 

April 2016 - KnowBe4 has a blowout Q1, growing 299% year-over-year, and makes it into the Cybersecurity 500, the definitive list of the world’s hottest and most innovative companies in the cybersecurity industry. We also made it on the #1 spot of Tampa Bay's Best Places To Work. Check out the blog post with more highlights and milestones. 

March 2016 - KnowBe4 for the first time has a booth at RSA in San Francisco and Kevin Mitnick is there for his popular card-exchange where attendees get his stainless steel lockpick business card.

January 2016 - KnowBe4 gets an $8 Million Venture Capital investment from Elephant Partners and changes from an LLC into an Inc.

January 2016 - KnowBe4 Q4 2015 was 358% over the fourth quarter 2014. Reaching 2,500+ enterprise accounts and more than 70 full-tlme employees. More at this blog post. KnowBe4 also releases the new, free Phish Alert add-in for Microsoft Outlook that any system admin can download and deploy to their users for a one-click report of possibly dangerous emails.

2015

October 2015 - KnowBe4 Q3 2015 was 400% over the third quarter 2014, reaching 2,000 enterprise accounts and more than 50 full-tlme employees. More at this blog post

September 2015 - KnowBe4 Grand Opening with ribbon cutting by Clearwater Mayor George Cretekos. Here is a blog post with stills and video of the event.

July 2015 - KnowBe4 sees security awareness training go from lunchroom to boardroom, and has seen explosive growth for eight consecutive quarters. Q2 revenues 2015 was 353% over the second quarter 2014. We successfully moved to our new 15,000-square-foot office space. More at this blog post. We have also released Version 5.0 which adds the much-requested Training Campaigns functionality. See a 30–second timelapse of our logo being mounted at the top of the building.

April 2015 - KnowBe4 Q1 2015 was 354% over the first quarter 2014. Moving to a 15,000-square-foot office space allowing expansion to 100 employees. More at this blog post.

March 2015 - KnowBe4 is now the world’s most popular integrated Security Awareness Training and Simulated Phishing platform. Well over 1,000 enterprise accounts are using it, 25% of which are banks and credit unions.

February 2015 - KnowBe4 releases V4.0 of the Management Console. Two powerful new features are the “anti-prairie dog” option that sends random phishing templates at random times during business hours over a 24–120-hour time period where you can exclude weekends. The other feature is Community Templates where customers can share successful phishing templates with their peers.

January 2015 - KnowBe4 Q4 2014 was 397% over the fourth quarter 2013, which in turn was 260% from the fourth quarter 2012.

2014

December 2014 - KnowBe4 announces refreshed training modules: Kevin Mitnick Security Awareness Training 2015, Mobile Security 2015 and PCI DSS Version 3.0.

October 2014 - KnowBe4 was named in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Security Awareness Computer-Based Training.

September 2014 - KnowBe4 announces V3.5 of the Management Console that adds Vishing Security Tests (VST). With this module you can test your end-users with simulated interactive voice response (IVR) attacks over the phone. Upload a CSV file with their phone numbers and choose a Kevin Mitnick VST Scenario™. VST’s are part of the Platinum pricing level.

June 2014 - KnowBe4 announces its new Crypto-Ransom Guarantee and sales skyrocket. Also, new features are added:

• Simulated attachments; Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Zip, also zipped versions of these files.
• Customizable “hover-links” that show when a user hovers their mouse over a link.

February 2014 - We show that our training program truly works great. We released visible proof in the form of our 12 months of customer results.

January 2014 - After 18 months of development, we released KnowBe4 Compliance Manager.

2013

December 2013 - Kevin Mitnick Security Awareness Training now used in well over 400 enterprise sites. Major upgrade of back-end console V2.0 released, including custom templates and landing pages. KnowBe4 announces that year-over-year growth from 2012-2013 is 427%. Here is the breakout by Industry.

October 2013 - Additional separate training modules announced: “Handling Sensitive Information Securely” and “Mobile Device Security”.

July 2013 - Osterman Research releases a survey that shows KnowBe4’s process for security awareness training is significantly more effective than other, traditional approaches.
 
September 2013 - Kevin Mitnick Security Awareness Training 2014 announced. It now comes in two flavors, the normal 40-minute version and a new 15-minute version for managers that specifically addresses Advanced Persistent Threats.

June 2013 - One of the Big Four accounting companies chooses KnowBe4 for its security awareness training program worldwide.

February 2013 - Introduction of “Kevin Mitnick Home Internet Security Course” – part of a bundle with VIPRE Antivirus and sold on Home Shopping Network as the Saturday Feb 2, 2013 "Today Special" with sales of 26,000 units the first day.

January 2013 - CyberheistNews is now the world’s largest e-zine for IT pros about social engineering and security awareness training with 140,000 subscribers.

2012

December 2012 - Kevin Mitnick Security Awareness Training now used in over 200 enterprise sites. Additional module becomes available: “PCI Compliance Simplified”. KnowBe4 announces that year-over-year growth from 2011-2012 is 342%.

June 2012 - Introduction of “Kevin Mitnick Security Awareness Training”, which is Version 2 of ISAT. Kevin Mitnick is announced as KnowBe4’s Chief Hacking Officer.

April 2012 - KnowBe4 expands its services and offers Vulnerability Scanning to clients.

February 2012 - KnowBe4 introduces the free Email Exposure Check, showing the phishing attack footprint of any organization.

2011

November 2011 - Kevin Mitnick joins KnowBe4 as Chief Hacking Officer and part owner at 11-11-2011. 

June 2011 - Analyzing the PST statistics, it shows that on average 20% of people in organizations will click on phishing links.

May 2011 - KnowBe4 releases a new cybercrime statistic that identifies the nation’s most Phish-prone industry sectors, with a simulated phishing attack on the Inc. 500. The study is called the FAIL500.

April 2011 - ISAT V1 gets released and is well received. With the release, KnowBe4 introduces the free Phishing Security Test. Hundreds of organizations do the PST.

March 2011 - KnowBe4 releases its weekly newsletter: CyberheistNews.

2010

August 2010 - Stu Sjouwerman, Co-founder of Sunbelt Software, starts KnowBe4, LLC and starts development of Internet Security Awareness Training (ISAT) Version 1. Experience in Sunbelt Software showed that the end-user is the weak link in IT Security, and cybercrime bypassed antivirus with social engineering.

June 2010 - June 2010 - Sunbelt Software gets acquired by GFI Software, a portfolio company of the Insight Partners Venture Fund.

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