Mika Aalto, Pyry Åvist, Karri Kurunmäki and Pasi Salo founded Hoxhunt in Helsinki in 2016 out of frustration with the state of corporate security awareness training. Traditional programmes treated cybersecurity education as a compliance exercise: employees sat through annual slide decks, ticked a box and forgot everything by the following week. Meanwhile, phishing remained the primary entry point for the vast majority of corporate cyber incidents. The founders saw that the problem was not a lack of awareness but a lack of genuine behaviour change.

Hoxhunt built a human risk management platform that goes beyond awareness to measurably reduce cyber risk. The platform combines AI and behavioural science to deliver personalised, gamified micro-training that adapts to each employee's skill level. Realistic phishing simulations are sent continuously, and when employees spot and report them, they earn points and climb leaderboards, turning what was previously a tedious obligation into something people actively engage with. Critically, Hoxhunt also automates incident remediation, helping security operations teams respond faster with fewer resources, while giving security leaders outcome-driven metrics to demonstrate reduced risk.

Hoxhunt works with major global enterprises and has won numerous industry awards.Dawn led Hoxhunt's Series A in 2018, alongside Icebreaker.vc and Risto Siilasmaa, the former chairman of Nokia. The company went on to raise a $40 million Series B led by Level Equity in 2022.