💰 Security, Funded #179 - The Fast & The Funded

Get cybersecurity market and intelligence insights, including key trends and industry analysis, for the week of January 27, 2025.

Author

Mike Privette
February 03, 2025 • Reading Time: 16 minutes

Security, Funded provides a weekly analysis of economic activity in the cybersecurity market. This week’s issue is presented together with Intezer, Palo Alto Networks, and Nudge Security.

Hey there,

Hope you had a great weekend!

Wow, a lot of stuff happened last week! A blitz of funding and acquisitions out of Israel, an anti-trust suit, DeepSeek sucker punches OpenAI, and the mega annual report was published.

On the anti-trust side, the United States Department of Justice filed suit against the acquisition of Juniper Networks by Hewlett Packard Enterprises. I covered the transaction in 💰 Security, Funded #126, and it would be the second-largest acquisition in the industry’s history if successful.

In a statement, both companies said they “believe the Department of Justice’s analysis of this acquisition is fundamentally flawed.” If this suit goes through, it would be an about-face for the current “business-friendly” US administration and not a good look for the industry.

Also, if you missed it last week, my annual report dropped, and it’s doozy!

The State of the Cybersecurity Market in 2024

www.returnonsecurity.com/p/the-state-of-the-cybersecurity-market-in-2024

I tried to go deeper than any year before and pulled out all the stops on the data analysis and chart-making process. I’d love it if you’d give it a read!

And lastly, a bonus meme:

OpenAI when they realized DeepSeek stole from OpenAI who stole from the whole Internet

TOGETHER WITH

Service-as-Software — The Future of Security Operations?

Intezer’s AI SOC solution is driving the Service-as-Software (SaSo) movement — transforming alert triage and response via:

  • Scalability: Handle vast data volumes for faster threat detection.

  • Cost Savings: Automate tasks and reduce operational costs.

  • Accuracy: Ensure consistent, error-free responses to threats.

Cyber threats are evolving. Intezer helps you stay ahead. 

😎 Vibe Check

What’s the one cybersecurity challenge that’s making your job harder right now?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Last issue’s vibe check:
If your cybersecurity program were a video game, how would you “win”?
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Quick response time = speedrun! 🏃‍♂️ (10)
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Fewer breaches = new high score! 🎮 (7)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Business savings = jackpot! 💰 (4)
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Auditor approval = mission complete! ✔️ (7)
28 Votes

Last week’s responses were all about response time, fewer breaches, and getting the auditors off your back. It’s really a circle of life when it comes to cyber programs, where getting audit approval can fund and fuel the growth of a cyber program to speed up response time and (hopefully) have few breaches.

Some of the top comments from last week:

Auditor approval - “-_-“ (same energy, honestly)

Choose Your Own Adventure Write-In - “If my CyberOps was a game, I would rely on RSS dude that's sneaky af fam”

💰 Market Summary

  • 21 companies from 5 countries raised $570.5M across 19 unique product categories

  • 8 companies were acquired or had a merger event across 8 unique product categories

  • 100% of funding went to product-based cybersecurity companies

  • 1 public cyber company had an earnings report

📸 YoY Snapshot

This is a rolling 12-week chart comparing funding and acquisitions each week in a year-over-year (YoY) view between the end of 2023 and the start of 2024 and 2025.

Click to see full-size

An absolutely huge week last week on the funding front! Big movements from anti-fraud, AppSec, and a ton more. Why did everyone wait to announce this week?? 🤔 

Click to see full-size

M&A activity is still rolling strong at the beginning of the year, and we’re just starting to see our first transactions with financial details with it. Last week was a product-heavy week on the M&A front. The strategics are buying up early-stage competitors (just like in 2024) and expanding market share.

TOGETHER WITH

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☎️ Earnings Reports

Cyber Market Movers

As of markets close on January 31, 2025.

Earnings reports from last week: Check Point

Check Point Software (CHKP)

Check Point was the first major cybersecurity player to announce its full-year 2024 earnings, which came in strong. Thanks partly to increased demand in appliance sales and increased demand for email security products, Check Point finished the year on a high note and grew new business across all regions by double-digits.

This was also the first earnings call with the new CEO, Nadav Zafrir. In a surprise to absolutely no one, Nadav said his focus will be on leveraging AI to drive operational efficiency and enhance its security offerings. He also mentioned Check Point’s appetite to increase M&A volume.

Macro Context:

  • US GDP grew 2.3% in Q4, while the Eurozone GDP grew 0%. The US Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady, while the European Central Bank (ECB) cut interest rates to 2.75% in response.

  • Major stock indices stabilized a bit after a huge shock to tech stocks last week from DeepSeek created a $1 Trillion (!!) temporary drop in market cap value. Things began to normalize and come back up a bit, albeit still much lower than where it was. More information is coming out daily, and it seems like new models from new entrants are following fast behind it.

  • Earnings season for the tech giants like Microsoft kicked off last week. While not directly related to cyber, Microsoft has a massive security business, and they give an early insight into how the rest of the public tech and cyber security may respond from Q4 2024.

  • Markets globally are bracing (selling off) for blanket tariffs being imposed by the United States against Canada, Mexico, and China. Brace yourselves for a bumpy ride!

Earning reports to watch this coming week:

  • Fortinet, Juniper Networks, Tenable, Varonis Systems, and Qualys

🧩 Funding By Product Category

Click to see full-size

  • $309.0M for Fraud and Financial Crime Protection across 2 deals

  • $50.0M for Application Detection and Response (ADR) across 1 deal

  • $45.0M for Firmware Security across 2 deals

  • $29.0M for Remote Browser Isolation across 1 deal

  • $25.0M for Security Operations across 1 deal

  • $20.0M for Non-Human Identity (NHI) Security across 1 deal

  • $20.0M for Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) across 1 deal

  • $15.0M for Security Data Observability Platform (SDOP) across 1 deal

  • $13.0M for Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) across 1 deal

  • $12.0M for Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) across 1 deal

  • $9.0M for Application Security across 1 deal

  • $6.0M for Security Awareness across 1 deal

  • $5.7M for Autonomous Product Security Engineering (APSE) across 1 deal

  • $3.9M for Operational Technology (OT) Security across 1 deal

  • $3.3M for Security and Compliance Automation across 1 deal

  • $2.6M for Attack Surface Management (ASM) across 1 deal

  • $1.0M for Trust & Safety across 1 deal

  • $643.6K for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Privacy Assurance across 1 deal

  • $417.6K for Secrets Management across 1 deal

🏢 Funding By Company

Products:

Services:

  • N/A

🌎 Funding By Country

Click to see full-size

  • $449.5M for the United States across 14 deals

  • $119.0M for Israel across 4 deals

  • $1.0M for the United Kingdom across 1 deal

  • $643.6K for Japan across 1 deal

  • $417.6K for Spain across 1 deal

🤝 Mergers & Acquisitions

Click to see full-size

Product

  • DropSuite, an Australia-based data protection and recovery platform for small-to-medium businesses (SMBs), was acquired by NinjaOne for $252.0M. DropSuite had previously raised $5.0M in funding. (more)

  • Vulcan Cyber, an Israel-based vulnerability remediation and risk management platform, was acquired by Tenable for $150.0M. Vulcan Cyber had previously raised $69.0M in funding. (more)

  • Assetnote, an Australia-based external attack surface management platform, was acquired by Searchlight Cyber for an undisclosed amount. Assetnote has not publicly disclosed any prior funding rounds. (more)

  • Deduce, a United States-based fraud and account takeover protection platform, was acquired by CHEQ for an undisclosed amount. Deduce had previously raised $26.3M in funding. (more)

  • Entrust, a United States-based certificate and PKI management platform, was acquired by Sectigo for an undisclosed amount. Entrust has not publicly disclosed any prior funding rounds. (more)

  • Solvo, a United States-based cloud security posture management (CSPM) platform, was acquired by CYE for an undisclosed amount. Solvo had previously raised $3.0M in funding. (more)

  • Stack Identity, a United States-based identity governance and administration platform, was acquired by JumpCloud for an undisclosed amount. Stack Identity had previously raised $4.0M in funding. (more)

Service

  • Alpine Cyber, a United States-based managed security services provider (MSSP), was acquired by Simulint for an undisclosed amount. Alpine Cyber has not publicly disclosed any prior funding rounds. (more)

📚 Great Reads

  • Awesome Cybersecurity Stocks - A curated list of publicly traded cybersecurity companies, organized by their core solutions and specialized domains by Tal Eliyahu.

  • *Why CASB is Failing Modern Security Teams - CASBs were designed for a bygone era when most work happened inside the corporate network. Today, the network edge extends to hundreds of SaaS apps used by the workforce and often adopted without IT oversight, requiring a new approach.

  • The State of the Cybersecurity Market in 2024 - An in-depth look at the cybersecurity market in 2024, focusing on AI's role, funding shifts, and investment trends shaping the industry.

*A message from our sponsor

🧪 Labs

“I’m monitoring the situation!”

Data Methodology and Sources

  • All of the data is captured point-in-time from publicly available sources.

  • All financial figures are converted to U.S. dollars (USD) when collected.

  • Company country locations are pulled from publicly available sources.

  • Companies are categorized using our system at Return on Security, and we write all the company descriptions.

  • Sometimes, the details about deals, like who led the round, how much money was raised, or the deal stage, might get updated after the issue is first published.

  • Let us know if you spot any errors, and we’ll fix them.

About Return on Security

Return on Security is all about breaking down the cybersecurity industry for you with expert analysis, hard facts, and real-life stories. The goal? To keep security pros, entrepreneurs, and investors ahead in a fast-moving field. Read more about the “Why” here.

Feel free to borrow any data, charts, or advice you find here. Just make sure to give a shoutout to Return on Security when you do.

Thank you for reading. If you liked this analysis, please share it with your friends, colleagues, and anyone interested in the cybersecurity market.

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