CyberPie

Jargon-free SaaS for SMB cybersecurity education via weekly micro-lessons

Website: https://www.cyber-pie.com/

Cover Block

PUBLIC
Name CyberPie
Tagline Jargon-free SaaS for SMB cybersecurity education via weekly micro-lessons
Headquarters Galway, Ireland
Founded 2020
Business Model SaaS
Industry Security
Technology Software (Non-AI)
Geography Western Europe
Growth Profile SMB / Main Street
Founding Team Solo Founder

Links

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Executive Summary

PUBLIC

CyberPie is a cybersecurity education platform for microbusinesses, a segment that has historically been underserved by complex enterprise security tools, and its attempt to simplify compliance into weekly micro-lessons presents a clear, if unproven, market entry point [CyberPie, Unknown]. The company was founded in 2020 by Andrea Manning, a South African native who, after an 18-year career in sales and marketing in the UK, relocated to Ireland and reinvented herself as a cybersecurity and GDPR consultant before launching the startup [The Currency, Unknown]. The core product is a SaaS platform that delivers jargon-free security awareness training through weekly video stories and step-by-step instructions, aiming to build security habits in under five minutes per week [CyberPie website, Unknown].

Manning's background provides relevant domain expertise as a public speaker and consultant, though the operational history is complicated by the dissolution of the original Irish corporate entity in April 2023 after just two years of operation [SoloCheck, Unknown]. No funding rounds, investors, or detailed customer traction metrics are publicly disclosed, leaving the current capitalization and growth trajectory of the active UK entity opaque. Over the next 12-18 months, the key watchpoints will be evidence of commercial adoption beyond the founder's consulting network, any formal capital raise to support scaling, and clarification of the corporate structure following the Irish dissolution.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Key company facts are confirmed, but product claims and market sizing are sourced primarily from the company's own materials.

Taxonomy Snapshot

Axis Classification
Business Model SaaS
Industry / Vertical Security
Technology Type Software (Non-AI)
Geography Western Europe
Growth Profile SMB / Main Street
Founding Team Solo Founder

Company Overview

PUBLIC

CyberPie began as an Irish venture in 2020, founded by solo entrepreneur Andrea Manning [Tracxn]. The company's public narrative positions it as a response to a specific market gap, built on the idea that microbusinesses, which it states make up 90% of Irish businesses, were underserved by complex cybersecurity solutions [CyberPie]. The startup gained early recognition, winning a category in Ireland's National Startup Awards in 2021 [startupawards.ie].

A critical legal transition occurred in 2023. The original Irish entity, Cyberpie Limited (company number 693002), was incorporated in April 2021 and was dissolved in April 2023 [Perplexity Sonar Pro]. Concurrently, a new UK entity, CYBER PIE LTD (company number 14790722), was incorporated in April 2023 and remains active [Perplexity Sonar Pro]. The company's website and social media channels remain live, indicating ongoing operations from a UK corporate base, though its headquarters is still listed as Galway, Ireland [Tracxn].

Founder Andrea Manning brings a non-linear career path to the venture, with an 18-year background in sales, marketing, and business ownership in the UK before moving to Ireland and reinventing herself as a cybersecurity consultant and tech entrepreneur [The Currency]. She is described as an experienced cybersecurity and GDPR expert and speaker [Galway Chamber].

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Company founding and award corroborated by multiple sources. Legal entity status is confirmed via public filings, but operational continuity post-2023 is inferred from an active website.

Product and Technology

MIXED

CyberPie's product is a cloud-based SaaS platform designed to deliver cybersecurity education to small businesses through a weekly micro-lesson format. The core proposition is to break down complex security concepts into manageable, jargon-free tasks, with each lesson delivered via a short video story and step-by-step instructions [CyberPie website]. The company claims this approach allows a business to build security habits in under five minutes per week [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. Training can be delivered in-person, virtually, or through the CyberPie app [Galway Chamber].

A key differentiator is the focus on the micro-business segment, a deliberate choice based on the company's stated belief that these businesses constitute 90% of the Irish market [CyberPie]. The platform's output includes a cyber health risk profile, which the company suggests can assist insurers in evaluating risk [EU-Startups]. The technology stack is not publicly detailed, but the product's description as a cloud-based platform and its delivery via a dedicated app imply a standard web and mobile application architecture.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Product claims are sourced from the company's own website and a local chamber directory, with no independent third-party review or customer validation of the platform's functionality or efficacy.

Market Research

PUBLIC The market for simplified cybersecurity education is driven by a persistent and widening gap between the scale of digital threats and the limited resources of the smallest businesses to address them.

Demand is anchored in a structural reality: microbusinesses, defined here as firms with fewer than ten employees, constitute an overwhelming majority of the business population in key markets. CyberPie's own framing, though unverified by independent data, cites that microbusinesses make up 90% of Irish businesses [CyberPie]. This density creates a large addressable base for a low-cost, high-volume service, though the willingness and ability of these firms to pay for security training remains the central commercial question. The primary tailwind is the increasing frequency and sophistication of attacks, such as phishing and ransomware, which disproportionately impact SMBs due to weaker defenses, coupled with a growing patchwork of data protection regulations like GDPR that impose compliance burdens regardless of company size [Galway Chamber].

Adjacent and substitute markets provide useful analogies for sizing. The broader cybersecurity awareness training market for all organizations was valued at approximately $2.5 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of around 16% through 2030, according to industry analyst Grand View Research [Grand View Research, 2023]. The SMB-specific segment is a fraction of this total. Direct substitutes include free resources from government cybersecurity agencies, bundled training from internet service providers, and low-cost online courses from platforms like Udemy or Coursera. These alternatives set a low price ceiling, forcing paid SaaS solutions to demonstrate superior convenience, accountability, and integration into daily workflow.

Regulatory and macro forces are a double-edged sword. Regulations like GDPR act as a demand driver by making data protection a legal requirement, but they also raise the stakes for training content accuracy and completeness. An economic downturn could pressure SMB discretionary spending, potentially making security a lower priority despite elevated risk. Conversely, the ongoing shift to cloud-based tools and remote work expands the attack surface for small teams, potentially increasing the perceived value of foundational security hygiene.

Metric Value
Global Security Awareness Training Market (2023) 2.5 $B
Projected CAGR (2023-2030) 16 %

The projected growth rate for the overall training market suggests sustained investor and enterprise interest in the category, though it does not directly translate to the price-sensitive microbusiness segment CyberPie targets. The company's bet rests on packaging and habit formation overcoming the inherent friction of selling a non-revenue-generating service to time- and cash-constrained owners.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market sizing relies on an analogous third-party report for the overall category; company-specific TAM claims are unverified.

Competitive Landscape

MIXED CyberPie operates in a crowded security awareness training market, but its positioning as a micro-lesson platform for the smallest businesses carves out a distinct, if narrow, niche.

The competitive analysis must proceed from the company's stated positioning against the broader market landscape.

  • Incumbent training platforms. Established players like KnowBe4 and Proofpoint Security Awareness Training dominate the mid-market and enterprise with comprehensive, compliance-focused programs. Their scale and feature depth are unmatched, but their pricing and complexity are misaligned with the needs of a one-person shop or microbusiness [Tracxn].
  • Challenger SMB platforms. A wave of newer SaaS tools, such as Hoxhunt or CybSafe, also target smaller organizations with more engaging, simulation-based training. These competitors often blend AI-driven phishing simulations with short educational content, representing a more direct feature-for-feature threat to CyberPie's model, though they typically start with slightly larger small businesses.
  • Adjacent substitutes. For the target micro-business owner, the most common substitute is free online resources, YouTube tutorials, or advice from an IT consultant. The competitive battle is less about feature parity with other paid software and more about convincing time-strapped founders that a structured, paid service delivers more consistent value than scattered free information.

CyberPie's defensible edge today rests entirely on its founder's deep domain expertise in GDPR and cybersecurity for the Irish micro-business community, and the product's intentional design for extreme simplicity. Andrea Manning's background as a consultant and speaker provides a credible voice and a potential direct sales channel [Galway Chamber, The Currency]. The product's "jargon-free" weekly video story format is a specific design choice to reduce cognitive load, a differentiator from more technical or simulation-heavy platforms. However, this edge is perishable. It is anchored to the founder's personal brand and the product's current UX; a well-funded competitor could replicate the simple lesson format without significant technical barrier.

The company is most exposed on two fronts. First, it lacks the capital to build or acquire the sophisticated phishing simulation engines that have become table stakes for growth in the broader SMB security training market. Second, its distribution is untested at scale. Without a funded sales motion or a large marketing budget, customer acquisition likely depends on word-of-mouth and the founder's network, limiting reach. A competitor like CybSafe, which has raised venture capital, could decide to create a stripped-down, low-cost tier specifically for microbusinesses, leveraging its existing technology and capital advantage to undercut on price or features.

The most plausible 18-month scenario is one of continued niche operation without significant market share capture. The winner in this segment will be whichever company first cracks the code on cost-effective, automated acquisition of micro-business customers. If a platform like Hoxhunt develops a viral, self-service onboarding flow that converts free users at a high rate, it could quickly blanket the market. The loser would be any purely consultant-driven service, like CyberPie in its current form, that cannot systematize growth beyond the founder's direct reach. For CyberPie to avoid this outcome, it must transition from a founder-led service to a product-led growth engine, a transition for which there is no public evidence of planning or capital.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Competitive mapping is inferred from company positioning and general market knowledge; no direct competitor comparisons are available from cited sources.

Opportunity

PUBLIC

The potential prize for CyberPie is a dominant position in securing the long-tail of European microbusinesses, a market segment historically underserved by traditional enterprise security vendors.

The headline opportunity is to become the default, habit-forming security layer for the self-employed and micro-enterprises across the UK and Ireland. This outcome is reachable not because of technological superiority, but due to a focused, accessible product design that directly addresses the primary barrier for this segment: time and complexity. The company's core premise, that "the microbusiness makes up 90% of Irish businesses" [CyberPie], frames a vast, fragmented audience. By delivering training in "under 5 minutes a week" through "weekly video stories" [CyberPie], CyberPie aligns its consumption model with the operational reality of its target customer. The evidence of early recognition, such as winning a category in Ireland's National Startup Awards in 2021 [startupawards.ie], suggests the concept resonates with local evaluators, providing a foundation for market validation.

Growth from this foundation could follow several distinct, concrete paths. The most plausible scenarios hinge on leveraging initial traction in one geography or vertical to unlock adjacent opportunities.

Scenario What happens Catalyst Why it's plausible
Channel Partnership with Micro-Business Insurers CyberPie's platform is white-labeled or integrated as a value-added service for insurers offering cyber liability policies to small businesses. A pilot partnership with a regional insurer in the UK or Ireland, using CyberPie's promised "cyber health risk profile" data [EU-Startups] for underwriting. The alignment of security education with insurance risk reduction is a well-established enterprise model. For microbusinesses, a simple, bundled offering could significantly lower customer acquisition costs.
Vertical-Specific Module Expansion The company moves beyond general awareness to offer compliance-focused micro-lessons for specific regulated sectors like independent healthcare practices or accounting firms. Launch of a GDPR-focused module suite, leveraging founder Andrea Manning's background as a GDPR consultant [YouTube, Tipp FM, CMG Events]. The founder's domain expertise provides credible content. Targeting niches with clear regulatory pain points (e.g., data protection) allows for higher pricing and reduces churn.
Acquisition by a SMB Software Suite A larger platform serving small businesses (e.g., accounting software, payment processors) acquires CyberPie to embed security education as a retention and differentiation feature. Demonstrated user engagement metrics and a clean, API-friendly SaaS architecture. Consolidation in the SMB tech stack is ongoing. A "security & compliance" module is a logical addition for platforms seeking to increase stickiness and average revenue per user.

The compounding effect for CyberPie would be a classic data network effect, though it remains aspirational. As more microbusinesses use the platform, the aggregated, anonymized data on common security failures and successful habit formation could refine the risk profiles mentioned in company materials [EU-Startups]. This refined data would, in theory, make the insurance partnership channel more valuable, attracting more insurers and, consequently, more businesses into the ecosystem. The flywheel is predicated on achieving a critical mass of users, for which there is no public evidence of traction yet.

Quantifying the size of a win requires a credible comparable. One relevant benchmark is the 2021 acquisition of security awareness training provider KnowBe4 by Vista Equity Partners for approximately $4.6 billion. While KnowBe4 serves the enterprise market, its valuation was driven by a scalable SaaS model for a non-discretionary spend category. A more direct, though smaller, comparable might be a niche SMB-focused SaaS company. If the insurer partnership scenario played out and CyberPie captured even a single-digit percentage of the UK's several million microbusinesses at a modest annual subscription, the company could plausibly build a business valued in the tens of millions of pounds. This is a scenario-based outcome, not a forecast, and is entirely contingent on proving the model's viability in its new UK entity after the dissolution of its Irish predecessor.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core product and market premise are described on the company's website and in a startup award entry. The founder's expertise is corroborated by multiple media appearances. Growth scenarios are logical extrapolations from stated capabilities but lack evidence of active pursuit. The corporate status shift (Irish dissolution, UK incorporation) is confirmed by public registries.

Sources

PUBLIC

  1. [CyberPie, Unknown] How it Works | https://www.cyber-pie.com/how-cyberpie-works

  2. [The Currency, Unknown] “You are hustling to try and run your other business to pay the bills and build a new business at the same time” | https://thecurrency.news/articles/62444/you-are-hustling-to-try-and-run-your-other-business-to-pay-the-bills-and-build-a-new-business-at-the-same-time/

  3. [SoloCheck, Unknown] Cyberpie Ltd - Irish Company Info and Credit Scores | https://www.solocheck.ie/Irish-Company/Cyberpie-Limited-693002

  4. [Tracxn, Unknown] CyberPie - 2025 Company Profile, Team & Competitors | https://tracxn.com/d/companies/cyberpie/__y5Szx2c2C2-vVJYKa-nlyxdk10AXQgqw5zxPy2r0U6Y

  5. [startupawards.ie, Unknown] 2021 Winners (CyberPie) | https://startupawards.ie/entries/cyberpie/

  6. [Perplexity Sonar Pro, Unknown] Corporate Status Research Brief | https://www.perplexity.ai/

  7. [Galway Chamber, Unknown] CyberPie | IT Services | https://business.galwaychamber.com/list/member/cyberpie-1599

  8. [EU-Startups, Unknown] CyberPie | EU-Startups | https://www.eu-startups.com/directory/cyberpie/

  9. [YouTube, Unknown] Andrea Manning, CyberPie, on BUSINESS BLOCK with Miriam O'Gara | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj14zpUL67o

  10. [Tipp FM, Unknown] Tipp Businesses at Risk of Cyber Attack - Andrea Manning - Cyber Security Expert | https://tippfm.com/podcasts/tipp-today/tipp-businesses-risk-cyber-attack-andrea-manning-cyber-security-expert/

  11. [CMG Events, Unknown] Andrea Manning Speaker Profile | https://cmgevents.com/

  12. [Grand View Research, 2023] Security Awareness Training Market Size Report | https://www.grandviewresearch.com/

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