At a glance.
- Resilience and the cyber workforce: a snapshot.
- Trends in private equity for cybersecurity startups.
- Nile secures $175 million in Series C round.
Resilience and the cyber workforce: a snapshot.
Immersive Labs has released its Cyber Workforce Benchmark Report, finding that "65% of directors anticipate a major cyberattack within 12 months, yet nearly half consider their organizations unprepared. Moreover, many Boards and executive teams lack the metrics to identify workforce cyber capabilities, making it impossible to address skill gaps promptly." The report adds, "Placing the burden solely on the CISO or cyber lead is dangerous. Cybersecurity should be everyone's responsibility, requiring directors to partner with C-level executives to foster an organization-wide cybersecurity culture."
Trends in private equity for cybersecurity startups.
DataTribe has published a report on the cybersecurity market in Q2 2023, outlining the following findings:
- "Seeds for Growth: Deal volume for early-stage cyber companies started to rebound in Q2. With 47 deals, Q2 increased from the depths of Q1 by nearly 50 percent. The data shows significantly fewer early-stage deals than in 2022 but at healthy valuations. A flight to quality in venture capital persists. The performance bar that will attract venture capital remains exceptionally high.
- "End of Runway May Be Closer Than It Appears: We are approaching the end of the runway for startups that sat on the fundraising sidelines for the past 18-24 months. We could see a lot of bumpy landings coming down the pike. This will be more acute for cash-burning later-stage companies. There were only four growth-stage cybersecurity deals in Q223, on par with Q123. Year-over-year, deal volume is down 75% (16 to 4) at this stage.
- "AI Pixie Dust Doesn’t Drive Value, AI Productivity Will: In the first half of 2023, AI companies raised $25B, slightly down from $29B in H1 2022. AI was down just 14% YoY in the same period, while global venture capital declined 50%. But, companies need to show that AI is more than a buzzword. How can companies best position their AI capabilities in a manner that attracts customers and investors without overblowing expectations?"
Mergers and acquisitions.
IT consultancy T-Rex Solutions has acquired Maryland-based Cyber Cloud Technologies, a company that provides IT services to the Federal government. T-Rex CEO Seth Moore stated, "In direct alignment with our strategy, this acquisition will accelerate growth in support of the most critical mission: our nation’s security. With the combination of Cyber Cloud Technologies’ exceptional performance in the Intelligence Community and T-Rex’s advanced cybersecurity and cloud adoption services, we will be better equipped to enable our customers’ mission success and protect our Nation’s critical systems."
Investments and exits.
San Jose, California-based network-as-a-service (NaaS) provider Nile has secured $175 million in a Series C round led by March Capital and Sanabil Investments, "with strategic participation from solutions by stc, Prosperity7, Liberty Global Ventures, and stc CIF (Corporate Investment Fund), and contribution from 8VC, Geodesic Capital, U First Capital, and Valor Equity Partners."
Seattle-based cybersecurity startup Protect AI has raised $35 million in a Series A round led by Evolution Equity Partners, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, Acrew Capital, boldstart ventures, Knollwood Capital, and Pelion Ventures, TechCrunch reports. The company's co-founder and CEO Ian Swanson told TechCrunch that the funding "will be put toward enhanced capabilities in Protect AI’s platform, an expanded research effort, and launching new open source projects."
New York-headquartered cyber risk management firm Converge Insurance has raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Forgepoint Capital. As part of the financing round, Converge has appointed Tom Kang as CEO. Kang stated, "This funding will enable us to expand our outreach and grow our bench of in-house experts while accelerating the availability of the Converge platform worldwide."
New York-based cyber risk resolution firm Silk Security has emerged from stealth with $12.5 million in seed funding from Insight Partners and Hetz Ventures, with participation from the CrowdStrike Falcon Fund.
Israeli contextual cybersecurity search platform Cyclops has emerged from stealth with $6.4 million in seed funding from Merlin Ventures, Magnolia Capital LLC (a subsidiary of Insight Partners), Tal Ventures, and toDay Ventures, with participation from the CrowdStrike Falcon Fund. Cyclops says the funding "will help scale the company to meet demands from its growing customer base, hire more developers to continue product innovation and expand capabilities, and fuel its go-to-market strategy."
Executive moves.
Fastly has hired Marshall Erwin as Chief Information Security Officer, SecurityMagazine reports.
Reddit has appointed Fredrick Lee as Chief Information Security Officer, SecurityWeek reports.
Island has named Steve Tchejeyan as its president. Tchejeyan previously served as Chief Revenue Officer for Forescout Technologies.
Cyware has hired Jason Keirstead as Vice President of Collective Threat Defense.
ColorTokens has appointed Agnidipta Sarkar as Vice President, CISO Advisory.
Rapid7 has appointed Anita Moorhouse as partner director for the APJ region. Moorhouse previously served as head of partner ecosystem ANZ at Qualtrics.