Pistachio Secures $7M to Fortify Cyber Workforce Training Revolution

Pistachio Secures $7M to Fortify Cyber Workforce Training Revolution

At a glance

• Pistachio, a Norwegian cybersecurity training company, has raised $7 million in a Series A round.
• The round was led by Walter Ventures, with participation from existing and new investors.
• Pistachio’s platform trains employees with personalized lessons and simulated attacks.
• The money will help it scale as companies try to reduce human error in security.
• The deal is part of a wider move toward realistic, practical security training.

Funding for AI-driven awareness training

Pistachio, an Oslo-based startup, has raised $7 million in a Series A round led by Walter Ventures, with Idékapital, Angel Invest, MP Pensjon and J12 Ventures also taking part. The company sells security awareness training that uses AI to tailor lessons and simulated attacks to each employee. It announced the round in April 2025.

Training built on simulated attacks

Most awareness training is generic. People tune it out. Pistachio sends employees realistic simulated attacks through email, Microsoft Teams and Slack, then gives short lessons based on how each person responds. The idea is that practice on lifelike lures teaches people more than an annual slide deck.

What the investors are backing

The investors see a large market in reducing human error, which is behind a large share of breaches. The new money will pay for a bigger team and product development, and help Pistachio reach more companies.

The skills gap

Cybersecurity Ventures has forecast that 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs worldwide will be unfilled by 2025. Hiring alone won’t fix it. Training the staff they already have, so that fewer phishing emails succeed, is one of the cheaper defenses available.

What comes next

Pistachio plans to expand into more countries and sectors and adapt its training to different organizations’ needs. Competition in awareness training is crowded, so the funding gives it room to prove that personalized simulations reduce real incidents.

What buyers should ask

Investors clearly still back awareness training when it breaks from the old compliance model. Buyers comparing training vendors should ask for data on how click rates change over time, check which channels the simulations cover and make sure employees can report suspicious messages easily. A tool that only produces completion certificates will not change much. Behavior is the metric.

Fred Templeton, CISA, CASP, SEC+

Fred Templeton is a practicing Information Systems Auditor in the Washington DC area. Fred works as a government contractor and uses his skills in cyber security to make our country's information systems safer from cyber threats. Fred holds a master's degree in cybersecurity and is currently working on his PHD in Information Systems.