💰Security, Funded #63 - Security awareness month, M&A reigns supreme, and the art of selling

Hey there,

I hope you had a great weekend and Happy Security Awareness Month!

In this week's issue:

• Security Awareness Month
• M&A still reigns supreme in cyber
• The art of selling to cybersecurity people

We're in the final quarter of 2022.

Inflation continues to rise, public cybersecurity stocks continue to beat market averages, the war in Ukraine continues to evolve, and we're fast approaching mid-term elections in the US.

All of these events will continue to make a tumultuous cyber landscape. Here's some guidance from the CISA on how you can stay vigilant. 👊😤

Source: https://www.cisa.gov/cybersecurity-awareness-month

Let's dive in.

📊 Market News

• M&A still reigns supreme in cybersecurity (more)
• Cloudflare takes aim at AWS by attracting startups with $1.25B of funding (more)
• 5G Cybersecurity market to see incredible growth (more)

💰 Funding Summary

• 8 companies raised $114.1M across 6 unique product categories
• 5 companies were acquired or had a merger event across 5 unique product categories for $6.6M

🧩 Funding by Product Category

• $51.8M for Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Security
• $34.0M for Software Supply Chain Security
• $10.0M for Continuous Compliance
• $10.0M for Attack Surface Management (ASM)
• $5.0M for Threat and Risk Prioritization
• $3.3M for Secure Networking
• $863.0K for Identity and Access Management (IAM)

🗣️ SPONSOR

🏢 Funding By Company

• MPCH Labs, a cryptocurrency security platform for managing digital assets and wallets, raised a $40.0M Series A from Liberty City Ventures. (more)
• Ox Security, a software supply chain security and risk management platform, raised a $34.0M Seed from Evolution Equity Partners, M12 - Microsoft's Venture Fund, and Team8. (more)
• Blowfish, a platform for detecting and preventing malicious Web3 wallet transactions, raised a $11.8M Seed from Paradigm. (more)
• 6clicks, an automated compliance and security platform, raised a $10.0M Series A from Centerstone Capital. (more)
• Detectify, an attack surface management (ASM) platform, raised a $10.0M Venture Round from Insight Partners. (more)
• Onyxia, a threat and risk prioritization platform, raised a $5.0M Seed from World Trade Ventures (WTV). (more)
• SensePass, a secure wireless communications platform, raised a $3.3M Seed from Menara Ventures. (more)
• heylogin, a password manager application, raised a $863.0K Pre-Seed from IBResearch and Mozilla.

🤝 Mergers & Acquisitions

• IND Corporation, a managed services provider (MSP), was acquired by ReachOut Technology for $6.6M. (more)
• Grey Monarch, a security monitoring platform for SAP deployments, was acquired by Pathlock for an undisclosed amount. (more)
• Iridium Global, a managed security services provider (MSSP), was acquired by Focus Digital Technology Group for an undisclosed amount.
• Specter Solutions, a blockchain security company, was acquired by Swan Bitcoin for an undisclosed amount. (more)
• ZecOps, a mobile device security monitoring and response platform, was acquired by Jamf for an undisclosed amount. (more)

🔐 Secure The Job

If you're looking for new opportunities (actively or passively), I've got two ways to help:

• Return on Security Job Board - Browse the jobs I curate each week and apply for what matches your interests.
• Return on Security Talent Collective - Apply to my talent collective to get personally matched with high-growth, high-upside opportunities.

Are you hiring? Post a role or request access to start meeting world class candidates open to new opportunities. Learn more or request access here.

📚 Great Reads

• NSA shares guidance to help secure OT/ICS critical infrastructure - The joint advisory shares info on all the steps used by malicious actors to compromise IT-enabled OT and ICS assets which provide a larger attack surface and highlights measures security professionals can take to defend against them.
• On the Art of Selling to Cybersecurity People - A primer to help sales people better prospect and sell cybersecurity products from a CISO's point of view.
• What Lurks in the Shadows of Cloud Security? - Organizations looking to get ahead in cloud security have gone down the path of deploying CSPM tooling with good results. Still, there’s a clear picture that data security and security operations are the next key areas of interest.

You can see the full list of curated posts across all issues here, and you can submit an article, post, tweet, or video here and it can show up in the newsletter!

🧪 Labs

👋 Thanks

Have questions, comments, or feedback about this issue? I'd love to hear from you. Reach out on Twitter or reply directly to the newsletter version of this issue.

Thanks for reading and see you again next time!

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• Get all the data I collect and create to make the newsletter and reports here. 📊
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Cheers,

Mike P