U.K.-based cybersecurity firm ThreatSpike Ltd. said today it has closed on $14 million Series A funding from Expedition Growth Capital, the first time it has secured outside capital since being founded 14 years ago.

The company has built what it says is a “next-generation managed security service” that provides both the technology and the expertise businesses need to detect and mitigate cyberthreats across vast and complex information technology environments.

ThreatSpike’s main differentiating factor is that it doesn’t just see itself as a cybersecurity provider, but rather as a partner, working in close collaboration with each of its customers to keep them safe from threats. Whereas most companies believe that the solution to their security woes lies in a web of tools known by their three-letter acronyms, like EDR, XDR and DLP, ThreatSpike offers an active partnership with cybersecurity experts.

It provides fully managed detection and response, paired with ongoing penetration testing to help its clients protect their most critical IT assets from the entire shebang of risks, including hackers, phishing attacks and accidental data breaches.

Its two main offerings include ThreatSpike Red, which provides clients with unlimited penetration testing at a fixed cost, allowing them to test their security whenever they want and as often as they want. The offering spans everything from red-team exercises, where teams of experts actively test companies’ security systems, along with real-world attack simulations.

Meanwhile, ThreatSpike Blue is a managed detection and response offering, with the company providing continuous cross-domain threat hunting with full visibility into every endpoint, network, cloud and application within customer’s IT environments, combined with artificial intelligence-powered automation to eliminate false positives.

The unique personal touch offered by ThreatSpike has had a big impact on customers such as the multinational ports and marine management company Inchcape Shipping Services Group Holdings Ltd., which has been using its services since 2016. “From the beginning, ThreatSpike has instilled a strong sense of trust and confidence within our team, enabling us to focus on our core business operations while knowing that our security posture is in expert hands,” said Lee Scott, Inchcape’s head of cybersecurity.

ThreatSpike was founded by the husband and wife computer scientist team Adam and Kate Blake back in 2011, and has been bootstrapped with no institutional capital prior to today. Instead, its growth has been driven solely by word-of-mouth and customer demand. To date, it boasts more than 200 customers spanning 90 countries.

“In a market full of three-letter acronym products and aggressive upselling, we take a different approach which puts customer security at the core,” ThreatSpike Chief Executive Adam Blake said.

The company’s security monitoring software is platform-independent and can be deployed across any IT environment and hardware, including servers or personal computers, with zero configuration required, giving customers instant visibility into user and machine behavior, the startup says.

Expedition Growth Capital Partner Will Sheldon said ThreatSpike has the highest level of customer referral-driven growth and satisfaction he has ever seen in the cybersecurity business. “It has been growing rapidly and profitably without investment as it fuses software and services into a unique platform that delivers tangible cybersecurity outcomes for sophisticated customers globally,” he said.

Looking forward, ThreatSpike will use the funds from today’s round to support its ongoing global expansion by growing its engineering, security operations and go-to-market teams and accelerating its product roadmap.

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