💰 Security, Funded #125 - 🤖 AI in Cybersecurity: Trust or Turmoil in 2024?

Hey there,

Happy Monday, and I hope you had a great weekend! In this issue, we’ve got:

• 🐌 Slow and steady

• 📎 The prodigal son returns

• 🤖 AI futures, trust, and taking jobs

I’d like to say that I got fully organized in last week and back into routines, knocking tasks off my task list, and getting after any of the quasi-New Year’s resolutions I made, but none of that would be true. So I’m going to keep this section short and sweet today.

This week is the one, though, I can already feel myself getting dialed in! 😤👊 

Onward to this week's issue.

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Last issue’s vibe check:
What is going to be the biggest cyber industry bust (non-event) of 2024?

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ ⛓️ Web3 security (22)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💰 Cyber insurance (9)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🗳️ US Election security (8)
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🧊 Quantum computing (23)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🤖 AI replaces offensive security (35)
97 Votes

Wow, this was my most-answered vibe check to date! Even with as much hype and doubt as there has been around quantum computing and Web3 to date, people voted that AI replacing offensive security people is unlikely to happen in 2024.

If you’re an offensive cyber company marketing AI-enhanced whatever today, tread lightly, because practitioners aren’t having it. What I do think will happen is that time-to-value for offensive security teams and companies will get shorter and enhanced by way of AI, but it still requires special expertise to make the magic happen.

📸 YoY Snapshot

A rolling 12-week chart to compare funding and acquisitions each week in a year-over-year (YoY) view between 2023 and 2024.

As this is a new year with only one week’s worth of data for 2024, this chart will be building over the next 12 weeks and will roll forward week-by-week to the end of the year.

A low volume start to the year compared to last year but with high fidelity from a significant late-stage funding round. Late-stage funding was almost absent from 2023 until there was a surge in late Q3/Q4.

A tailwind of acquisitions comes hurtling into the new year. Acquisition volume was ~40% higher than the rolling 12-week average. Much of this is likely a press release timing thing more so than any major trend indications, but it does show the continued industry consolidation energy that 2023 brought.

💰 Market Summary

• 5 companies raised $81.8M across 4 unique product categories

• 8 companies were acquired or had a merger event across 6 unique product categories

🧩 Funding By Product Category

• $63.0M for Cloud Security across 2 deals

• $18.8M for Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Security across 1 deal

• An undisclosed amount for Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) across 1 deal

• An undisclosed amount for Professional Services across 1 deal

🏢 Funding By Company

• Aqua Security, a United States-based cloud workload protection and posture management platform, raised a $60.0M Series E from Evolution Equity Partners. (more)

• Doppel, a United States-based distributed ledger technology (DLT) security platform for detecting non-fungible token (NFT) fraud, raised a $18.8M Venture Round. (more)

• Anitian, a United States-based platform offering pre-engineered and secured infrastructure components, raised a $3.0M Venture Round. (more)

• iFlock Security Consulting, a United States-based professional services firm focused on penetration testing and compliance, raised an undisclosed Funding Round. (more)

• Tracecat, a United States-based security information and event management (SIEM) platform, raised an undisclosed Pre-Seed from Y Combinator.

🌎 Funding By Country

• $81.8M for the United States across 5 deals

🤝 Mergers & Acquisitions

• Banyan Security, a United States-based secure remote access platform, was acquired by SonicWALL for an undisclosed amount. (more)

• Compliance Solutions, a United States-based professional services firm focused on penetration testing, compliance, and vCISO consulting, was acquired by C3 Complete for an undisclosed amount. (more)

• Elevate Security, a United States-based insider risk management and threat detection platform, was acquired by Mimecast for an undisclosed amount. (more)

• Go2 Communications, a United States-based professional services firm focused on cybersecurity and technology services, was acquired by Amplix for an undisclosed amount. (more)

• ieMentor, a United States-based professional services firm focused on networking and security consulting, was acquired by Driven Technologies for an undisclosed amount. (more)

• NTRINSEC, a United States-based machine identity and secrets management platform, was acquired by Quantum AI Plc for an undisclosed amount. (more)

• PingSafe, a United States-based cloud workload protection and posture management platform, was acquired by SentinelOne for an undisclosed amount. (more)

• Your Tech Team, a United States-based managed security services provider (MSSP), was acquired by CloudScale365 for an undisclosed amount. (more)

📚 Great Reads

• 7 Things to Expect From AI in 2024+ - To predict AI's progress, you have to ignore the tech itself and ask what people want from it

• AI and Trust - Bruce Schneier talks about the intersections of AI, trust, and innate biases as they relate to social, governmental, and technological constructs.

• Throttle Therapy - A thread of videos about how @AccidentalCISO managed career burnout.

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🧪 Labs

Finally some AI evolutions we can all get excited about

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