American VC investors dominate global cybersecurity sector in 2018, says GlobalData

All the top 10 venture capital (VC) investors (by number of investments) in global cybersecurity space in 2018 were headquartered in the US, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

The top 10 VC investors (Accel, Sequoia Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, ClearSky, Bain Capital, Paladin Capital Group, GGV Capital and M12) participated in 90 funding rounds with total proportionate investment value of US$825m in 2018.

While the total investment volume of these 10 VC firms increased by 45.7% in 2018 compared to the 2014–2017 average, the total investment value grew by 80.2%, indicating an increase in average deal size.

Accel emerged as top investor, both in terms of investment volume and value. ClearSky registered the highest growth in volume as well as value in 2018 over the 2014–2017 average. The company has a dedicated fund, ‘ClearSky Security’ that invests in companies offering cybersecurity, industrial security and critical infrastructure security solutions.

All the top 10 VC investors, except New Enterprise Associates, Bessemer Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital, witnessed increase in volume in 2018 as compared to the 2014-2017 average.

New Enterprise Associates also recorded decline in investment value in 2018 as compared to the 2014-2017 average. Paladin Capital Group was the only other company to witness decline in investment value in 2018.

Aurojyoti Bose, Financial Deals Analyst at GlobalData, says: “Cybersecurity has been among the top agendas of corporates due to spike in incidences of security breach. VC investors are also seeing it as an exciting investment opportunity. Though the US remains the epicenter of VC funding activity in cybersecurity space, investors are also placing bets in start-ups in other countries, notably China, Israel, the UK and Canada.”

The top five countries by number of investments (the US, China, Israel, the UK and Canada) accounted for 85.3% of the total investment volume and 94.5% of the total investment value in global cybersecurity space in 2018.

The US led with 57% of total investment volume and 69.1% of the total investments in 2018. More than half of the global VC firms investing in cybersecurity space in 2018 were also headquartered in the US. China with 9.5% of total investment volume and 12.8% of the total investments occupied second position.

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