💰 Security, Funded #100 - Cashing in on Q2, BlackBerry Blitz, and Keeping it 💯

Hey there,

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend and welcome to the 100th issue of the Security, Funded newsletter! 🥳 

🏃‍♂️ The Rundown

A meta roundup of all the important things affecting cybersecurity and the microenvironment:

• 🎯 Major cyber AI investments close Q2

• 💡 BlackBerry’s cybersecurity sales surge

• 🚀 Yet Another New Product Category (YANPC)

• 🧩 Challenges in pentesting LLMs and AI systems

• 🤔 AI privacy vs. personalized AI agent future conflict

• 🎉 Large volume of deals mark cybersecurity's comeback

Heads up - Today’s issue is going to be a long one based on how many transactions there were last week and your email provider might cut it short. I suggest reading this issue online here if you can.

Yet Another New Product Category (YANPC) - this time with something I’m calling “AI Privacy Assurance.” You’ll see a few companies below falling into this new privacy-preserving and AI usage world, and I think this is a really important area for the world to be focusing on.

This effort, however, will be at direct odds with the personalized AI agent that does lots of work for you future that many people want to see come true.

I’ve loved keeping it 💯 with you all on this newsletter! Thank you for being here, and thank you for your kind words, support, feedback, and encouragement over these last two years. Here’s to the next 100!

Onward to this week's issue.

📅 YTD Funding

A rolling 12-week chart to compare funding each week between 2022 and 2023.

Remember last week when I said that I thought things were quiet so investors and founders could focus on generative AI applications for cybersecurity? And then this week, there was a big wave of cyber + AI investments to finish out Q2?

Even though cyber funding is down ~43% as compared to Q2 2022, I think we are just getting started with this new wave of AI-led cyber investments. Valuations are starting to go back up, growth rounds are starting to look like absolute units again, and marketing efforts are on overdrive. Oh man, we are so back 😤👊 

I’m not keeping score or anything, but many of the 2023 predictions I made late last year are continuing to come true. 👀

💰 Funding Summary

• 19 companies raised $293.5M across 17 unique product categories

• 3 companies were acquired or had a merger event across 3 unique product categories for $70.0M

🧩 Funding By Product Category

• $15.0M for Identity and Access Management (IAM) across 1 deal

• $100.0M for Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) across 1 deal

• $34.0M for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Security across 2 deals

• $30.0M for Threat Intelligence across 1 deal

• $29.0M for Secure Remote Access across 1 deal

• $25.0M for SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) across 1 deal

• $25.0M for Network Security across 1 deal

• $15.0M for Attack Surface Management (ASM) across 1 deal

• $12.1M for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Privacy Assurance across 2 deals

• $8.0M for No-Code Security across 1 deal

• $4.4M for Software Supply Chain Security across 1 deal

• $3.5M for Identity and Access Management (IAM) across 1 deal

• $2.5M for Fraud and Financial Crime Protection across 1 deal

• $2.1M for Cyber Insurance

• $1.9M for Application Security

• $1.1M for Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP)

• An undisclosed amount for Trust & Safety

• An undisclosed amount for Data Access Governance

🏢 Funding By Company

• Cyera, a United States-based data security posture management (DSPM) platform, raised a $100.0M Series B from Accel. (more)

• Cyware, a United States-based cyber threat intelligence platform, raised a $30.0M Series C from Ten Eleven Ventures. (more)

• Venn, a United States-based secure remote access platform, raised a $29.0M Series A from NewSpring. (more)

• Astrix Security, an Israel-based access management platform for third-party applications and integrations, raised a $25.0M Series A from CRV. (more)

• IP Fabric, a United States-based network security and assurance platform, raised a $25.0M Series B from One Peak. (more)

• Calypso AI, a United States-based platform for securing Large Language Model (LLM) usage, raised a $23.0M Series A from Paladin Capital Group. (more)

• Sevco Security, a United States-based attack surface management (ASM), raised a $15.0M Venture Round.

• BeeKeeperAI, a United States-based platform allowing AI workloads to work with privacy-protected data in a secure manner, raised a $12.1M Series A from Sante Ventures. (more)

• Resistant AI, a Czechia-based platform to protect AI systems from adversarial machine learning attacks and advanced fraud, raised an $11.0M Series A from  Notion Capital. (more)

• Nokod Security, an Israel-based no-code and low-code application security platform, raised an $8.0M Seed from [Acrew Capital, Flint Capital, and Meron Capital. (more)

• Xygeni, a Spain-based software supply chain security platform, raised a $4.4M Seed from  Investing Profit Wisely.

• 0pass, a United States-based hardware-based authentication platform, raised a $3.5M Seed from Initialized Capital. (more)

• Outdid, a United Kingdom-based identity verification platform, raised a $2.5M Seed from Jump Crypto and Superscrypt. (more)

• 1Fort, a United States-based cyber insurance and managed security company for SMBs, raised a $2.1M Pre-Seed from 8-Bit Capital, BrokerTech Ventures, Character, Company Ventures, Operator Partners, and Village Global. (more)

• Invary, a United States-based runtime application security platform, raised a $1.9M Pre-Seed from Flyover Capital. (more)

• BonjourCyber, a France-based managed security services provider (MSSP), raised a $1.1M Seed. (more)

• Congruity360, a United States-based data access governance, raised an undisclosed Venture Round from G20 Ventures and Schooner Capital.

• Reality Defender, a United States-based AI deepfake detection platform for media networks, raised an undisclosed Seed from Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs.

• Tibo, a Singapore-based platform for removing sensitive information when using AI and LLM systems, raised an undisclosed Seed from Oak Seed Ventures. (more)

🌎 Funding By Country

• $241.5M for United States across 12 deals 🇺🇸

• $33.0M for Israel across 2 deals 🇮🇱

• $11.0M for Czechia across 1 deal 🇨🇿

• $4.4M for Spain across 1 deal 🇪🇸

• $2.5M for United Kingdom across 1 deal 🇬🇧

• $1.1M for France across 1 deal 🇫🇷

• An undisclosed amount for Singapore across 1 deal 🇸🇬

🤝 Mergers & Acquisitions

• Berbix, a United States-based identity verification platform, was acquired by Socure for $70.0M. (more)

• BluBracket, a United States-based code security platform that checks for security and integrity issues, was acquired by HashiCorp for an undisclosed amount. (more)

• Horangi, a Singapore-based cloud security platform, was acquired by Bitdefender for an undisclosed amount. (more)

📚 Great Reads

• The Challenges with LLM Pentesting - Garrett Galloway’s take on the multi-faceted complexities around penetration testing Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI systems.

• Cybersecurity Interview Questions Collections - Security interview questions for different security skills with possible explanations. This GitHub repo is for security professionals who want to make themselves ready for various security roles from different skill sets like appsec, DevSecOps, and cloud security.

• Building Security Tools is the Wrong Approach - If we want mass adoption of security technology and to have a truly meaningful impact on the state of software security, we have to stop building security tools and start building developer tools that have security features.

🧪 Labs

Plz think before you share sensitive data 😥 

✅ Here to Support

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2. Schedule a 1:1 coaching call on newsletters, monetizing, cybersecurity trends, product strategy, or anything else.