Communications of the ACM
As Cyberattacks Surge, Security Start-Ups Reap the Rewards
Investors have poured more than $12.2 billion into start-ups that sell products and services such as cloud security, identify verification and privacy protection so far this year.
Credit: Matejmo/Getty Images
As cyberattacks proliferated this year, Sanjay Beri, the chief executive of Netskope, a cloud security start-up, got a phone call. Then an email. Then more messages.
All were from venture capitalists who wanted to invest in his company. Given the ransomware attacks and nation-state hacks that were making headlines, they told him, companies that made security products had a bigger market and mission than before.
"We weren't looking for capital," said Mr. Beri, who founded Netskope in 2012, but the cyberattacks "definitely increased their interest."
After bids from seven investors, Netskope raised $300 million this month at a valuation of $7.5 billion, up from a $2.8 billion valuation last year. It was one of the year's largest cybersecurity funding rounds, but not the maximum that Netskope could have attained.
From The New York Times
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