Bristol-based cyber security training firm Immersive Labs acquires Snap Labs

Published by

Peter Davison

James Hadley, CEO of Immersive Labs

Immersive Labs, a cyber security training firm based in Bristol, has acquired Philadelphia-based Snap Labs in a multi-million dollar deal.

Immersive Labs teaches cybersecurity skills to corporate employees by using up-to-date cyber threat intelligence in a 'gamified' way.

"Only by dropping people into the shoes of a defender can they truly develop the kinds of capabilities needed when the worst happens in the real world," says the company.

Immersive Labs, which launched in 2017, recently closed a $75 million Series C funding round to enhance its platform.

It says its acquisition of Snap Labs "brings a new level of realism to organisations looking to develop cyber knowledge, skills and judgement, providing them with the ability to build multi-player simulations customised for specific environments and roles."

James Hadley, CEO of Immersive Labs, said, “From day one we have believed in the power of immersive experiences.

"Whether you are a CEO wrestling with the wicked problems of a cyber crisis exercise or a malware analyst decompiling the latest APT (advanced persistent threat), nothing is better for building and evidencing cyber knowledge, skills and judgement.

“The acquisition of Snap Labs doubles down on this, allowing customers to build better cyber workforces with richly detailed realistic experiences pinpointed to the risk they face.

"We welcome the team to Immersive Labs and look forward to building on our joint vision together.”

Snap Labs – which enables companies to build, launch, and share cyber labs for cybersecurity training, research, and demos – was founded in 2016 by Co-Founders Chris Myers and Barrett Adams.

The company currently works with customers such as Accenture, Mandiant and Crowdstrike.

Chris Myers, co-founder, said, “Snap Labs has always strived to provide the most realistic environments and training experiences for cybersecurity teams.

"Immersive Labs’ vision to build cyber knowledge, skills, and judgement across the entire workforce is remarkably aligned with our own, and we’re extremely excited to bring our technology into their platform.

“The two platforms are a natural fit, and by combining them we hope to help our customers build even more resilience against cyber threats.”

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.