“This funding will support our globalization strategy,” said Tiffany Ricks, founder and CEO of HacWare. “Our goal is to leverage AI to take the guesswork out of training employees on evolving threats.”
Cybersecurity education company HacWare Inc. is one of 20 Black- and Latino-led companies that recently secured funding from Google for Startups Founders Fund.
“This funding will support our globalization strategy,” HacWare founder and CEO Tiffany Ricks said during a livestream. “Our goal is to leverage AI to take the guesswork out of training employees on evolving threats.”
She said the key is education on all areas of cybersecurity so that companies have the knowledge to spot phishing attacks and other possible attack vectors.
According to Google, each startup, including HacWare, will receive a $150,000 non-dilutive cash prize, $100,000 in Google Cloud credits, and hands-on mentorship from Google experts in AI, sales, and more to help them build and scale their companies and innovate responsibly with AI.
The funding from Google will enable HacWare to expand its team and strengthen its channel partnerships with over 3,000 IT solution providers across North America, EMEA and APAC regions.
Google said it has donated more than $50 million to date to more than 570 Black and Latinx founders around the world, who have since raised more than $590 million in additional funding to continue to scale their businesses and AI solutions.
In addition to the funding, HacWare will work with the Google team to drive the cybersecurity company’s go-to-market strategy and AI product roadmap, positioning itself as a market leader in AI-driven people risk management solutions.
“This year, the Google for Startups Founders Fund is focused on backing incredible founders who are leveraging AI to tackle today’s most pressing problems,” Danny Navarro of Google for Startups said in a statement. “We’re impressed with HacWare’s work in the cybersecurity space and are thrilled to welcome the team to our vibrant startup community.”
Last week, Ricks (pictured) hosted a livestream with MK Palmore, director of Google Cloud’s CISO office, to discuss the funding and the memorandum of understanding on AI submitted by the US government earlier this year.
“A lot of companies were a little apprehensive when we introduced AI to our platform, but I’m optimistic,” Ricks says, “but they need to really think about how to manage the risks as well as how to find good use cases for AI.”
One positive aspect of the memorandum that Ricks highlighted was the strengthening of AI governance, which he said could lead to improved innovation and services offered by technology companies.
This will encourage companies to appoint chief AI officers, she said.
With the government taking a stand on this issue, Palmore believes it’s “a transformative time” – before the MoU was signed, he believes a lack of governance and policy held companies back from adopting AI.
“This is a good thing across the board,” he said. “I think the chief AI officer position is a good proposal, but what we’re seeing in a lot of organizations is that larger companies already rely on a chief risk officer. The responsibilities of a chief AI officer may be part of or subsumed within the responsibilities of a chief risk officer. This is a good thing, but I think it’s going to require some tailoring on an organization-by-organization basis.”
