💰Security, Funded #66 - an unstoppable force, essential skills, and new funds

Hey there,

I hope you had a great weekend!

In this week's issue:

• An unstoppable force
• New cyber-focused venture funds
• Essentials skills for security leadership

Overall tech company valuations have seen a reduction over the last two quarters and cybersecurity companies have felt a bit of this pain, but there's more here.

On one hand, the cost of working capital has increased making it more expensive to lend and borrow money, private company valuations have decreased, due diligence life cycles have increased, and less early-stage checks have been written this year as compared to last year.

Contrast that with the fact that CIOs and CISOs are stilling seeing their budgets increase for cybersecurity spend or not be affected at all and threats continuing to escalate globally. What do these two opposing facts get you?

An unstoppable force meets an immovable object - cybersecurity spend remains high across the board.

Expect to see more cyber-focused ventures funds and partnership to pop up as capital looks to find unique solutions to their problems with portfolio returns and with reducing corporate risk overall.

Onward to this week's issue.

🗣️ SPONSOR

📊 Industry News

• 33N Ventures launches for investment in cybersecurity and infrastructure companies (more)
• Banco Santander and Forgepoint Capital announce strategic alliance to advance cybersecurity investments (more)
• Industrial Cybersecurity Market Expected to Soar in Next Decade (more)

💰 Funding Summary

• 10 companies raised $105.4M across 8 unique product categories
• 6 companies were acquired or had a merger event across 4 unique product categories

🧩 Funding by Product Category

• $50.0M for Data Privacy
• $15.0M for Fraud and Financial Crime Protection
• $14.0M for Data Access Governance
• $10.0M for Security Awareness
• $10.0M for Network Security
• $4.2M for Blockchain Security
• $2.2M for Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP)
• An undisclosed amount for Data Protection

🏢 Funding By Company

• Anonos, a data privacy and governance platform, raised a $50.0M Debt Financing from Ghost Tree Partners. (more)
• Bolster Inc., an anti-fraud and anti-counterfeit platform, raised a $15.0M Series A from Cervin, Cheyenne Ventures, and Crosslink Capital. (more)
• Corsa Security, a network security management platform, raised a $10.0M Series D from Roadmap Capital. (more)
• OutThink, a security awareness and training platform, raised a $10.0M Seed from Forward Partners and TriplePoint Capital. (more)
• Velotix, a data access governance platform, raised a $10.0M Seed from Capri Ventures. (more)
• Hexens, a blockchain security company, raised a $4.2M Seed from IOSG Ventures. (more)
• Raito, a data access governance and management platform, raised a $4.0M Seed from Crane Venture Partners and Dawn Capital. (more)
• Guardey, a managed security services provider (MSSP) for small and medium businesses, raised a $2.2M Seed. (more)
• HYCU, a cloud service data backup and recovery platform, raised an undisclosed Venture Round from Okta Ventures. (more)
• Third Wave Innovations (formerly RCS Secure), a managed security services provider (MSSP), raised an undisclosed Series A from Socii Capital. (more)

🤝 Mergers & Acquisitions

• Hardenize, a web-based external attack surface management (EASM) platform, was acquired by Red Sift for an undisclosed amount. (more) (I missed this last week, shoutout to Billy for putting this on my radar 🤝)
• Blue Jean Networks, a managed services provider (MSP), was acquired by Integris for an undisclosed amount. (more)
• Dcoya, a security awareness company, was acquired by NINJIO for an undisclosed amount. (more)
• First Colo, a managed security services provider (MSSP), was acquired by Cube Infrastructure Managers for an undisclosed amount. (more)
• Security7, a managed security services provider (MSSP), was acquired by Integris for an undisclosed amount. (more)
• TBG Security, a professional services firm focused on penetration testing and vCISO services, was acquired by J.S. Held for an undisclosed amount. (more)
• TechMD, a managed services provider (MSP), was acquired by ICS 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 and request access to start meeting world class candidates open to new opportunities. Learn more or request access here.

📚 Great Reads

• You should have lots of AWS accounts - Lots of AWS accounts working together in harmony will net you a more secure, more reliable, and more compliant cloud infrastructure.
• Confidential Computing Is for the Tinfoil Hat Brigade - Threat modeling doesn't point to confidential computing as a solution for cloud security. Ultimately, it's a marketing ploy that targets cloud skeptics.
• Essential Attributes of Security Leadership - A look at the essential attributes of security leadership that require some combination of archeologist, cartographer, explorer, librarian, historian and anthropologist.

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!

Whenever you're ready, there are a few ways I can help you:

• Work 1:1 with me to evaluate a company or product category here. 🤝
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Cheers,

Mike P