New York-based Jericho Security has secured $15 million in Series A funding to scale its AI-powered cybersecurity training platform. The investment, announced today, follows the company’s successful five-month execution of a $1.8 million Department of Defense contract that put the two-year-old startup on the cybersecurity map.
“Within minutes, a sophisticated attacker can now create a voice clone that sounds exactly like your CFO requesting an urgent wire transfer,” said Sage Wohns, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Jericho Security, in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “Traditional cybersecurity training simply hasn’t kept pace with these threats.”
Jericho’s profile rose significantly last November when the Pentagon selected the company for its first generative AI defense contract. The $1.8 million award through AFWERX, the innovation arm of the Air Force, charged Jericho with protecting military personnel from increasingly sophisticated phishing attacks.
“There was a highly publicized spear-phishing attack targeting Air Force drone pilots using fake user manuals,” Wohns noted in an earlier interview. The incident underscored how even highly trained personnel can fall victim to carefully crafted deception.
This federal contract helped Jericho stand out in a crowded cybersecurity market where established players like KnowBe4, Proofpoint, and Cofense dominate. Industry analysts value the security awareness training sector at $5 billion annually, with projected growth to $10 billion by 2027 as organizations increasingly recognize human vulnerability as their primary security weakness.