Flight of the security unicorns>
Protocol – Kyle Alspach
M&A activity in cybersecurity was actually down a bit in the first half of the year (148 deals vs. 167 a year ago), though still well above the same period of 2020, according to data from advisory firm Momentum Cyber. But on the funding front, things are definitely cooling off. Q2 saw a slowdown in both VC deals (241 vs. 269 a year ago) and total funding ($5.4 billion vs. $6.8 billion) for security startups, Momentum Cyber reported. Perhaps even more tellingly, median valuations for seed-stage companies in cybersecurity fell to $12 million during Q2 (down 33% from Q1) and dropped to $40.5 million for Series A startups in security (a 10% decrease from Q1), according to a report from DataTribe. That’s important because much of the M&A ahead will involve earlier-stage security startups getting acquired by larger players, according to security-focused venture investors who I’ve spoken with recently,
Link: https://www.protocol.com/newsletters/protocol-enterprise/security-startup-funding-hacker-bounty?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1