💰 Security, Funded #159 - Summertime Sadness

Hey there,

I hope you had a good and long weekend if you’re tuning in from the US!

Summer is officially over around the world now 😫 and that includes VC Summer™️. 😤 👊 With deal size and volume heating up and the US economy looking increasingly like an interest rate increase is coming in September, everything is really starting to get interesting in the latter half of this year.

Onward to this week's issue.

😎 Vibe Check

Last issue’s vibe check:
When it comes to AI for Security or Security for AI, what kind of company are you more likely to go with?
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🏢 A more established company (17)
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🆕 A newer startup (11)
28 Votes

Last week’s vibe check was a bit closer than I expected, with 60% of people saying they were more likely to go with an established company regarding AI for Security / Security for AI. I imagine that if I had put a third option of “A bit of both,” I would have gotten the most votes there. I think the market is far too large with far too many problems to solve at this point to go all-in on one kind of company vs. another. I also suspect that many are doing the “wait for my existing large vendor to add this feature.”

Some of the top comments from last week:

“More established - Newer startups are more likely to have solutions that only work in modern environments or are largely cloud based. Many organizations span not only cloud, but on-prem cloud native, VMs, and in some cases physical servers. Making security work across all those, where you manage your fleet or where you plan to deploy your AI-enabled apps, typically requires expertise that established companies have - however it does come at the cost of sleek, easy to use, and without all the extra cruft inherent with heritage code and systems.”

💰 Market Summary

📸 YoY Snapshot

Funding is picking back up this week as VC Summer™️ comes to an end. I think the latter half of this year is really going to pick up.

M&A again with a healthy week. Look for this area to pick up even more steam as the big dogs go through Q2 earnings season.

🤙 Earnings Reports

🧩 Funding By Product Category

• $319.0M for Security Analytics across 1 deal

• $10.5M for Data Privacy across 2 deals

• $5.9M for Password Management across 1 deal

• An undisclosed amount for Quantum Security across 1 deal

• An undisclosed amount for Professional Services across 1 deal

• An undisclosed amount for Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) across 1 deal

🏢 Funding By Company

• Cribl, a United States-based security and cloud data aggregation and analytics platform, raised a $319.0M Series E from GV. (more)

• Omnisient, a South Africa-based privacy-focused platform making confidential data sharable, raised a $7.5M Series A from Arise. (more)

• Uniqkey, a Denmark-based password management platform, raised a $5.9M Venture Round from BackingMinds. (more)

• PrivacyHawk, a United States-based consumer and business data privacy management platform, raised a $3.0M Seed from K Street Capital. (more)

• Cybanetix, a United Kingdom-based managed security services provider (MSSP), raised an undisclosed Venture Round from Phoenix Equity Partners. (more)

• MOXFIVE, a United States-based professional services firm focused on digital forensics and incident response (DFIR), raised an undisclosed Private Equity Round from Falfurrias Management Partners. (more)

• Quantum Bridge, a Canada-based quantum-resistant encryption key distribution platform, raised an undisclosed Corporate Round from Juniper Networks. (more)

🌎 Funding By Country

• $322.0M for the United States across 3 deals

• $7.5M for South Africa across 1 deal

• $5.9M for Denmark across 1 deal

• An undisclosed amount for the United Kingdom across 1 deal

• An undisclosed amount for Canada across 1 deal

🤝 Mergers & Acquisitions

• Cyber Sandia, a United States-based professional services firm focused on public sector cybersecurity assessments in the US state of New Mexico, was acquired by TAC Security for an undisclosed amount. (more)

• Cyberint, an Israel-based cyber threat intelligence platform, was acquired by Check Point Software Technologies for an undisclosed amount. (more)

• Forensic IT, an Australia-based professional services firm focused on digital forensics and incident response (DFIR), was acquired by Spirit Telecom for an undisclosed amount. (more)

• Grove, a South Africa-based professional services firm focused on cloud security, was acquired by Integrity360 for an undisclosed amount. (more)

• Robust Intelligence, a United States-based application security platform for securing AI applications and services, was acquired by Cisco for an undisclosed amount. (more)← This marks the 3rd AI Security acquisition this year

📚 Great Reads

• Intel’s Immiseration - The long, seemingly inevitable decline of an icon. This is an interesting look into Intel's various missteps and slow decline.

• *The State of Hardened Container Images - Hardened container images are critical to security and trust in open-source software. Chainguard Labs surveyed the field to learn how current offerings are living up to a “hardened” container image promise. Read the full research report to see how other images compare.

• Cybersecurity Market Update: July 2024 - Check out July 2024's cybersecurity market trends, investments, major acquisitions, and global insights.

• TL;DR: Every AI Talk from BSidesLV, Black Hat, and DEF CON 2024 - Clint Gibbler does it again with a meta-analysis of all the AI Security talks from the major security conferences this summer. Get up to speed on >60 AI talks in 15 minutes.

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🧪 Labs

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