It’s estimated that 40% of internet traffic is non-generated or bot traffic. While some of this non-human traffic is used to improve the internet experience (think TurboVax for finding vaccine availability or SEO indexing), a large portion is used for nefarious purposes such as fraud and identity theft. HUMAN is a cybersecurity solutions provider that focuses on protecting enterprises and users from bot-based automated attacks. The company, founded in 2012, offers three multilayered core detection products – BotGuard for Applications (focused on preventing user identity and data intrusions), BotGuard for Growth Marketing (preventing advertisers from purchasing bot-generated traffic), and MediaGuard (protects publishers from bot traffic). HUMAN’s observability technology, detection, intelligence, and takedown capabilities analyze 15 trillion interactions per week to flag potential vulnerabilities at the source.
AlleyWatch caught up with HUMAN CEO and Cofounder Tamer Hassan to learn more about the company’s humble beginning in a bookstore a decade ago, the threat that non-human bot traffic presents to the average consumer’s everyday interactions on the internet, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding, which brings the total funding raised to $142.1M, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
HUMAN raised $100 million in a growth funding round led by West Cap and NightDragon, along with other existing investors
Tell us about the product or service that HUMAN offers.
Human is a cybersecurity company that protects enterprises and internet platforms from sophisticated bot attacks and fraud to keep digital experiences human. We accomplish this with three products:
- BotGuard for Applications detects and mitigates sophisticated bot attacks on sites and applications including credential stuffing, credential cracking, account takeover, account creation fraud, payment fraud and content and experience abuse to lower fraud loss and preserve customer trust and experience.
- BotGuard for Growth Marketing ensures 100% of your digital marketing spend is allocated towards real humans. It detects automated engagement in digital marketing and automatically prevents bot traffic from entering ad targeting systems, CRM, and downstream marketing systems to lower costs and boost digital marketing performance.
- MediaGuard detects and mitigates sophisticated bot activity automatically preventing bots from affecting inventory quality, harming platform reputations, and stealing from advertisers to maximize spend and trust in digital advertising.
What inspired the start of HUMAN?
We started this company 10 years ago, in the back of a dusty science fiction bookshop in Brooklyn, New York. Amidst stacks of sci-fi memorabilia and books, we churned away at the problem of who’s real on the internet, and its implications. In those early days, we created two t-shirts. One said ROBOT. And the other said HUMAN.
Knowing who’s real is among a handful of enduringly hard problems on the internet. 77% of all cyberattacks are bot-based, and the economic impact of fraud is in the billions of dollars a year, and so is the impact to modern security. If you could look like a million humans online, what could you do? It’s harder to imagine many things you couldn’t do.
Over the last decade, we’ve seen sophisticated human-like bots designed to do many things: take over accounts, manipulate popularity and consensus, steal sensitive data, interact with media and advertising, and snipe or scalp goods and services online. We stop them. So what would the world look like without these malicious bots?
- The most popular songs are popular because real people listened to the music – and enjoyed it.
- Identities are protected and not used for malicious purposes – like filling out forms and clicking on ads.
- When an exclusive product drops, it doesn’t appear on third-party sites minutes later for 10x the price.
- Every human who wants to see their favorite artist in concert is actually able to get a ticket.
How is HUMAN different?
Our modern defense strategy enables internet-class scale and observability, superior detection techniques, and hacker intelligence & takedowns empowering us to defeat cyber attacks, improving the digital experience for real humans.
Because of our leadership position in protecting the digital advertising ecosystem from ad fraud, HUMAN sees 80% of all users on the internet on a monthly basis and determines if they are a bot before they’ve attempted to use any web application. HUMAN verifies the humanity of 15 trillion interactions per week, harnessing internet-scale visibility and a decade’s worth of data to deliver collective protection to customers that include the largest internet platforms and enterprises across the globe.
Our Human Verification Engine uses a multilayered approach that allows us to detect and prevent bot traffic with unprecedented accuracy, without compromising anyone’s experience on the web. These layers consist of:
Technical Evidence: We probe the device to gather data on the network, device, software, application, and user configuration to detect technical evidence of compromise.
Machine Learning: We analyze thousands of data points collected across trillions of transactions to predict malicious behavior, enabling us to provide a high level of accuracy, even when there is insufficient technical evidence.
Global Threat Intelligence (Satori Threat Intelligence Team): HUMAN’s Threat Intelligence analysts proactively hunt for new threats on the Internet, attributing threats to specific botnet operators, campaigns, and other threat actors.
Continuous Adaptation: HUMAN has continuously adapted over the last 10+ years, creating thousands of markers and hundreds of algorithms. Our speed to identify and build new detection mechanisms enables us to stay ahead of the adversary.
The result: HUMAN’s approach allows us to detect and prevent sophisticated bot traffic and fraud with unprecedented accuracy, without compromising anyone’s experience on the web.
What market does HUMAN target and how big is it?
Cybercriminals use bots as a weapon system in 77% of all attacks and have become much more sophisticated. Because of the vast scale of the bot problem across verticals and organizations, HUMAN targets four main markets that face billions of dollars in fraud every year:
- Advertisers including Marketplaces, Publishers & Brands
- Growth/Performance Marketers
- Site & Application Security Leaders & Product Owners
- Fraud fighters in eCommerce
Sophisticated bots look and act more and more human, come from infected consumer and business devices, and easily bypass fraud and security tools. The problem has grown exponentially over the past two years due to the shift to digital and the pandemic. Cybercriminals always follow the money, and they have become much more sophisticated in their approach to attacks, bypassing current security tools. Top vertical-specific use cases include:
- Bots buy tickets to a live music event and they get sold out in 5 minutes, showing up for 10x the price on 3rd party sites
- Bots testing millions of usernames and passwords to break into high-net-worth individuals bank accounts.
- Bots listening to music on streaming services. Bots can create fake accounts and can influence the top rated songs of the day.
- Bots attacking a delivery company who was seeing 70%+ bot traffic to their site. Reducing just 1% of the fraud would reduce compute costs in the multi-hundreds of thousands per year plus reduce fraud to their system
- Bots buying limited inventory sneakers and gaming consoles and reselling them at 5x the cost.
- Bots influencing SEC policies in the Net neutrality vote
What’s your business model?
HUMAN offers a SaaS business model where we charge based on the volume of digital interactions we protect. This enables us to protect companies in a cost effective way where they benefit from collective protection. When we see and stop a threat in one customer, we immediately are able to protect all of our customers. This collective protection approach enables us to change the game and the odds to the side of the good, enabling us to defeat attackers together. This is the only way to win.
HUMAN offers a SaaS business model where we charge based on the volume of digital interactions we protect. This enables us to protect companies in a cost effective way where they benefit from collective protection. When we see and stop a threat in one customer, we immediately are able to protect all of our customers. This collective protection approach enables us to change the game and the odds to the side of the good, enabling us to defeat attackers together. This is the only way to win.
What are your post-COVID office plans?
We have a “work from anywhere, anytime” mindset that goes far beyond just letting employees work from home. It’s about how we foster a sense of community and care from home. It’s giving employees opportunities to connect, both physically and virtually, and opportunities to unplug. At HUMAN, we embrace “work from anywhere, anytime” by providing flexibility. Go pick up your kids from school or visit your family. We’ll be here when you get back. An office doesn’t need to be a desk and a chair: Sometimes it’s a porch or a fire escape. Our humans have the option to go into any of our global offices but are not required to. For the home office, we offer a yearly stipend so that they can buy the needed to help them work comfortably and securely from home.
To stay connected, we have implemented internal virtual events to bring humans together, such as cupcake decorating, candle making, and more. It allows us to think creatively, use our hands and chat with each other over Zoom. We’re looking forward to welcoming more of these activities in 2022, especially in parts of the world where we can get together in person.
What was the funding process like?
Because of the success of our Human Verification Engine protecting our customers from sophisticated bot attacks and fraud, we had a large number of interested investors who wanted to talk with us about our growth round of funding. We engaged with a few, looking for the best new teammate that would not only give us access to capital to grow but one that would be the best complement to our board and bring operational excellence across our business to grow faster and smarter. That’s why we partnered with the WestCap team. They are seasoned entrepreneurs and company builders who work side-by-side with founders to help companies scale. They have over $8 billion of assets under management and have made notable investments in top companies including Airbnb, StubHub, iPreo, Skillz, Addepar, Hopper, iCapital, GoodLeap, Cerebral, Bolt, Celsius, and NYDIG. We also received additional investment from NightDragon and other current investors. We have an amazing board of directors/teammates.
Because of the success of our Human Verification Engine protecting our customers from sophisticated bot attacks and fraud, we had a large number of interested investors who wanted to talk with us about our growth round of funding. We engaged with a few, looking for the best new teammate that would not only give us access to capital to grow but one that would be the best complement to our board and bring operational excellence across our business to grow faster and smarter.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
We were fortunate that many investors were interested in talking with us due to our company growth rate and because we are the company in the best position to address one of the most fundamental problems on the internet today: stopping bot attacks and keeping digital experiences human.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
They believed in our team and our mission to protect the integrity of the internet by disrupting the economics of cybercrime. They knew that automated attacks on applications and websites creating fraud and abuse is a critical point of risk to every enterprise. We have demonstrated that our modern defense approach and collective protection is the only way to win against attackers.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We are hiring the best humans across the globe with the best technical and go-to-market skills in support of the company’s next phase of growth. We plan to expand our leadership position in the bot protection market and build a more secure and more human internet
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
To build a company of consequence that provides irreplaceable value to customers. If you do that right, capital will be readily available.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We have big plans to protect more companies and support more bot use cases across cybersecurity, marketing, advertising and e-commerce.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC?
Pre-COVID one of my answers would have been Bryant Park Grill because it is so convenient to our office. It’s been amazing to see how the outdoor dining scene in NYC has exploded during COVID and all of the creative things that these small businesses are doing. When the weather is nice, I love Grand Banks in Tribeca, a bar/restaurant on a historic schooner in the Hudson.”
