Cybersecurity investors
Cybersecurity investors back companies that protect systems, data and identities, and the tools that security teams use to do it. The buyers are security leaders with budgets under pressure and more vendors than they can evaluate, which makes the sale a technical one.
The firms on this list name security or identity as a focus on their own website. Several are specialist security funds, often run by former practitioners. Each cites its own site as the source for what is written here.
KBW Ventures is an asset management company focusing exclusively on venture capital, value creation, and growth equity. It targets direct investments in some of the world's most…
MH Ventures is a venture firm focused on accelerating the decentralized future. It backs and builds the next generation of open blockchain infrastructure, supporting founders and…
Presight Capital is a venture capital firm investing in the most ambitious founders across sectors, stages, and geographies. Presight takes a global approach to early-stage…
Quadri Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in enterprise software companies across the US and Europe. It focuses on providing capital to support the growth of…
01 Advisors was founded in 2018 by former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and former Twitter COO Adam Bain, later joined by former Facebook CRO David Fischer. Positioned as 'For Operators…
10x Founders is a network-driven investor backed by over 200 entrepreneurs and angels. The founding partners (Andreas Etten, Andrej Henkler, Claudius Jablonka, Felix Haas, Jan Becker…
Founded in 2012, 1818 Venture Capital is a Guernsey-based VC firm specialising in early-stage financial services innovation. The firm partners with ambitious founders building…
212 invests in growth-stage tech companies across Turkey, CEE, and MENA. Currently, our fund manages €75 million of committed capital, and 25 investments. Our strategy is to invest in…
Founded in 2020 by former Rocket Internet executives Alexander Kudlich and Ludwig Ensthaler, alongside Mesosphere founder Florian Leibert, 468 Capital bridges the European and US tech…
Founded in 2018 by former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, alongside Theo Osborne and David Fisher, 9Yards Capital is a growth equity firm that backs technical founders…
Founded in 2019 by former Aspect Ventures and Accel partners, Acrew Capital is a multi-stage venture capital firm that emphasizes depth of conviction, emotional intelligence, and…
Founded by former Tiger Global executive Lee Fixel, Addition is a prominent "Tiger Cub" venture capital firm based in New York. The firm is known for its highly centralized…
Founded in 2015 by Lei (Renee) Li, Alpha Square Group (ASG) began as a single-family office and officially transitioned to a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) in 2020. The firm…
Founded in 2017 by Andrew Sugrue and Jamie Reynolds, Avenir Growth Capital is a private investment firm focused on scaling technology-enabled businesses. The firm operates with the…
Bain Capital Ventures (BCV) operates as the venture capital division of Bain Capital, one of the world's largest private multi-asset investment firms. Established in 2001, BCV focuses…
Balderton Capital is a pillar of the European venture ecosystem, originally established as the European arm of Silicon Valley's Benchmark Capital before becoming independent. The firm…
Breyer Capital is an independent global venture capital and private equity investor. Founded by Jim Breyer in 2006, it makes long-term, idea-driven investments.
Brookfield Asset Management is a leading global investment firm known for its "owner-operator" model, leveraging its 250,000+ operating employees to actively run and improve acquired…
Burda Principal Investments (BPI) is a division of Hubert Burda Media that provides long-term growth equity to fast-growing digital technology and media companies. It acts as the…
Launched in 2021, BVP Forge was created to bridge a specific gap in the market: supporting capital-efficient, self-sustaining companies that do not fit the traditional high-cash-burn…
Cherry Ventures is a seed fund, founded by entrepreneurs with substantial experience in building fast-scaling technology companies.
Disrupt.com is a venture builder and investor with a mandate to build and back the next wave of AI-first startups globally from the UAE. The firm commits capital and co-building…
Anchored by the Dubai International Financial Centre and Dubai Future Foundation to strengthen venture capital investing in Dubai.
e& capital is the investment vertical under e&, a global technology group formerly known as the Emirates' telephone company.
What cybersecurity investors look for
A threat that is real and current.
Investors in this sector know what security teams are dealing with this year. A product for a problem that buyers do not yet feel is a hard sale, however sound the technology.
A product security teams will deploy.
Integration with what the buyer already runs, low false positives, and a clear place in the stack. Investors ask whether this replaces a tool, adds to a tool or becomes a new category.
Technical depth in the team.
Founders from security operations, research or engineering. The buyers are experts, and they buy from people who have done their job.
A path from proof of concept to contract.
Security is bought through trials. Investors want to see the conversion rate from trial to paid, and how long it takes.
A view on platform consolidation.
Large security vendors buy or build every category eventually. Investors want to know why this company becomes a platform or a target rather than a feature.
Raising in cybersecurity
Security rounds often involve specialist investors who will test the product themselves or have a practitioner do it. The technical diligence is deeper than in most software sectors and the founder should expect it.
Have ready: the threat model the product addresses, proof of concept results with real customers, the conversion rate from trial to contract, the integration list, and the competitive map with a specific reason the company wins each comparison.
Security has an active acquirer market, and investors will ask about it early. A credible view of who might buy the company and why is part of the pitch here in a way it is not in every sector.
Questions
Do security investors fund identity companies?
Yes. Identity and access are part of the sector, and several of the firms on this list name them specifically.
How do investors evaluate a security product?
By testing it, or by having practitioners test it. They look at detection quality, false positive rates, integration effort and how it fits the buyer's existing stack.
What is a security proof of concept?
A trial deployment in a customer's environment before purchase. Nearly every security sale runs through one, and the rate at which trials become contracts is a key metric for investors.
Is cybersecurity a good sector for a first-time founder?
It is a hard one without domain experience, because buyers are experts and evaluate vendors on credibility. Founders from security teams or research have an advantage, and investors look for it.
How do investors think about acquisitions in security?
As a common outcome. Large vendors acquire regularly, and investors in the sector track who is buying what. Founders should know the landscape without building the company for a sale.
Cybersecurity investors by country
Cybersecurity investors by city
Cybersecurity investors by stage