💰 Security, Funded #79 - No Tech For You, Capital Is Cautious, and Web3 but Make It Secure

Hey there,

I hope you had a great weekend!

In this week's issue:

• No Tech For You

• Capital Is Cautious

• Web3 but Make It Secure

More tech layoffs, the US wants to cut off all exports to Huawei to curb nation-state spying, the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates again because the economy just isn’t feeling the vibe yet, Juniper Networks announced their Q4 2022 earnings, OpenAI released a tool to detect AI-generated text (very meta), and funding focused on building security into Web3 applications is ramping up (as predicted).

Earnings Report

Juniper Networks (JNPR) announced their Q4 2022 earnings last week with mixed results. While Q4 revenue was up ~11.5% YoY, they still fell short of their target revenue by $30.0M.

The mixed results came, in part, from previous quarters' supply constraint headwinds. In previous quarters, customers bought more inventory than they needed due to lead times. Now that the supply chain has eased up a bit and customer orders are flowing, customers are no longer "pandemic-buying" routers, switches, and firewalls. As a result, there were lower bookings and lower revenue for Q4 than expected. The growth Juniper did see in Q4, however, was largely driven by services providers creating "cloud-ready data centers" due to increased demand for the need for edge and 5G solutions.

Juniper Networks was one of the first publicly traded cyber companies to announce last quarter's earnings this year. Over the next several weeks we'll have several more pure-play cyber companies and hybrids alike announcing earnings, and that will give us a better picture of how buyers and investors finished their year.

Onward to this week's issue.

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📰 Industry News Roundup

• Tenable launches venture capital arm, to invest in cybersecurity start-ups (more)

• Tampa Bay Wave names 15 cybersecurity startups for 2023 CyberTech|X Accelerator Cohort (more)

• OpenAI releases tool to detect AI-generated text (more)

• OpenText to Lay Off 8% of Workforce, Fueled by $5.8 Billion Micro Focus Acquisition (more)

• Vista Equity Partners Completes Acquisition of KnowBe4 (more)

• Cybersecurity firm Rapid7 explores sale (more)

📅 YTD Funding 🆕

I thought it might be interesting to look at funding as a running total for the year-to-date (YTD) and by the week or month.

When you zoom out, capital is looking more cautious than last year. This likely isn't a surprise to anyone who has been following this newsletter or the broader funding in tech/SaaS over the last few months, but it is still surprising to see the data laid out.

I'll continue to evolve how this chart looks and may even throw in a monthly view of this after we get past Q1. Let me know what you think about this and thanks to Sean from Miscreants for the inspiration!

💰 Weekly Funding Summary

• 17 companies raised $296.0M across 15 unique product categories

• 6 companies were acquired or had a merger event across 4 unique product categories for $5.8M

🧩 Funding By Product Category

• $205.0M for Identity and Access Management (IAM)

• $30.0M for Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)

• $27.7M for Cyber Insurance

• $11.0M for Threat Detection and Response (TDR)

• $9.0M for Security Operations

• $7.4M for Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Security

• $4.9M for Fraud and Financial Crime Protection

• $500.0K for Secure Networking

• $500.0K for Attack Surface Management (ASM)

• An undisclosed amount for Risk Management

• An undisclosed amount for Professional Services

• An undisclosed amount for Network Security

• An undisclosed amount for Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP)

• An undisclosed amount for Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

• An undisclosed amount for Application Security Testing (AST)

🏢 Funding By Company

• Saviynt, a United States-based intelligent identity and access governance solution for cloud applications, raised a $205.0M Debt Financing from AB Private Credit Investors. (more)

• Sentra, an Israel-based cloud data security posture management (DSPM), raised a $30.0M Series A from Standard Investments. (more)

• BOXX Insurance, a Canada-based cyber insurance provider, raised a $14.4M Series B from Zurich Insurance Group. (more)

• Gem, a United States-based threat detection and response (TDR) platform, raised an $11.0M Seed from Team8. (more)

• Guardz, an Israel-based cyber insurance provider for SMBs, raised a $10.0M Seed from Hanaco Venture Capital. (more)

• Hypernative, an Israel-based security operations platform for Web3 transactions and applications, raised a $9.0M Seed from Boldstart Ventures. (more)

• Sovereign Labs, a software framework that allows for secure deployments of zero-knowledge (zk) blockchain applications, raised a $7.4M Seed from Haun Ventures. (more)

• Asset Reality, a United Kingdom-based company helping investigate and recover stolen digital assets like cryptocurrency and NFTs, raised a $4.9M Seed from Framework Ventures. (more)

• Baobab, a United States-based cyber insurance company, raised a $3.3M Seed from Augmentum Fintech. (more)

• Foretrace, a United States-based attack surface management (ASM) platform, raised a $500.0K Seed from TEDCO. (more)

• ZIOS3, a United States-based secure networking platform, raised a $500.0K Funding Round.

• Gossip Security, a China-based network security company, raised an undisclosed Seed.

• Lexverify, a United Kingdom-based platform that identifies and flags compliance risks through email, Slack, and other digital communication methods, raised an undisclosed Non-Equity Assistance round from The LegalTech Fundand National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) for Startups. (more)

• Peris.ai, an Indonesia-based managed security services provider (MSSP), raised an undisclosed Pre-Seed from  East Ventures. (more)

• Robo Shadow, a United Kingdom-based penetration testing professional services firm, raised an undisclosed Non-Equity Assistance from National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) for Startups. (more)

• ZORB Security, a United Kingdom-based data loss prevention (DLP) for small businesses with remote workforces, raised an undisclosed Non-Equity Assistance from National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) for Startups. (more)

🌎 Funding By Country

• $220.3M for United States 🇺🇸

• $49.0M for Israel 🇮🇱

• $14.4M for Canada 🇨🇦

• $7.4M for None (typical for Web3 companies to not have an HQ location and be “global”)

• $4.9M for United Kingdom 🇬🇧

• An undisclosed amount for Indonesia 🇮🇩

• An undisclosed amount for China 🇨🇳

🤝 Mergers & Acquisitions

• ALC Cyber Security, an Australia-based professional services group focused on cybersecurity education, was acquired by Tesserent for $5.8M. (more)

• AMOSSYS, a France-based professional services firm focused on cybersecurity audits, testing, and training, was acquired by Almond for an undisclosed amount. (more)

• Brainwave GRC, a France-based identity governance and administration (IGA) platform, was acquired by Radiant Logic for an undisclosed amount. (more)

• Cerberusftp, a United States-based secure file-sharing service, was acquired by Redwood Software for an undisclosed amount. (more)

• Fidus Information Security, a United Kingdom-based penetration testing company, was acquired by Wavenet for an undisclosed amount. (more)

• Integrated Business Technologies (IBT), a United States-based managed security services provider (MSSP), was acquired by The 20 MSP for an undisclosed amount. (more)

📚 Great Reads

• How to survive below the cybersecurity poverty line - The security poverty line has become the benchmark of acceptable cybersecurity for businesses. Here are the factors that determine that benchmark and advice for those below it.

• Black swan events are shaping cybersecurity - In recent years, we have bore witness to a surge of black swan events, and they continue to emerge in real-time. They have affected every facet of our lives, and this rings true in the world of cybersecurity. By analyzing these recent events, we can better map out our industry’s evolutionary processes to predict where cybersecurity is heading next.

• Security Leaders Debate: 2023 Cybersecurity Predictions - A webinar from Sonil Yu, Kelly Shortridge, Claude Mandy, and Fernando Montenegro on their cybersecurity product and threats predictions for 2023.

🐝 Cross Pollinate 🆕

Discover something new this week.

A shocking stat from another newsletter I like called The Split

“IBM's Mainframe Business is Growing Faster than AWS: Finally, I can't believe I'm typing this, but in Q4 IBM's Infrastructure business grew 32% over Q3, compared to Amazon's AWS at 4%. Specifically, inside this segment, its "Z System" mainframe business grew 16%. It's admittedly working on a much smaller base, but IBM added $1.1 billion in infrastructure revenue in Q4 compared to $900 million for Amazon's AWS.”

Read The Split.

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