Modeling cybersecurity risks is difficult for insurance companies. A growing cyber threat landscape and rising incidence of costly attacks makes it increasingly difficult to offer the right cyber insurance packages at the right premiums. Mark Clancy of The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. has said that the current state of cyber-risk modeling is like “trying to use the count of arrests for a crime to figure out the dollar losses from theft.”
Difficulty modeling risk from cyber threats in the commercial insurance business has created opportunities for a growing number of startups to offer security benchmarking — the industry’s term for comparing the relative security of companies’ networks and systems. Insurance companies can then use these security benchmarking tools to make smarter underwriting decisions around cyber liability. Some startups also provide FICO-like scores around company risk profiles.
Using CB Insights database we identified 12 startups that are working in cyber insurance, risk scoring, and threat remediation, selected based primarily on CB Insights’ Mosaic scoring algorithm, which uses financial and non-financial signals to assess the health of private companies. The companies range from early-stage startups (Seed – Series A) to established companies (Series B+) and have all raised at least $5M. The 12 companies on our list all obtained funding since 2016.
1. BitSight Technologies
BitSight Technologies offers a security rating platform that continuously analyzes data on cybersecurity behaviors in order to help organizations manage third party risk, benchmark performance, and assess and negotiate cyber insurance premiums.
Total Disclosed Funding: $87M
Latest Investment Round: $40M Series C
Select Investors: Menlo Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners, Flybridge Capital Partners
2. Prevalent Networks
Prevalent Networks provides a third-party risk-management and cyber threat intelligence platform to manage and monitor threats and risks associated with vendors.
Total Disclosed Funding: $72M
Latest Investment Round: $60M Series C
Select Investors: Spring Mountain Capital, Fulcrum Equity Partners, Insight Venture Partners
3. RedSeal Networks
RedSeal assesses an organization’s overall security posture via the RedSeal digital resilience score and helps deliver continuous compliance with regulations and actionable steps for risk remediation.
Total Disclosed Funding: $69.3M
Latest Investment Round: $5M Series C-II
Select Investors: Sutter Hill Ventures, Leapfrog Ventures, Icon Ventures
4. Cyence
Cyence offers an economic cyber risk modeling platform specifically for the insurance industry to understand the impact of cyber risk in the context of dollars and probabilities.
Total Disclosed Funding: $40M
Latest Investment Round: $40M Series A
Select Investors: New Enterprise Associates, Institutional Venture Partners
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Track cybersecurity startups5. SecurityScorecard
SecurityScorecard offers a product specifically for insurance companies to assess the security risk posture of potential and existing clients, as well as determine policy premiums, and more.
Total Disclosed Funding: $33.4M
Latest Investment Round: $20M Series B
Select Investors: Sequoia Capital, Evolution Equity Partners, BOLDstart Ventures
6. Bay Dynamics
Bay Dynamics leverages businesses’ existing security investments to provide a cyber-risk analytics platform that delivers actionable risk insights.
Total Disclosed Funding: $31M
Latest Investment Round: $23M Series B
Select Investors: Comcast Ventures, Carrick Capital Partners
7. UpGuard
UpGuard offers CSTAR, a cybersecurity preparedness score for enterprises to understand the risk of breaches and unplanned outages and procure cybersecurity insurance.
Total Disclosed Funding: $27.4M
Latest Investment Round: $17M Series B
Select Investors: Valar Ventures, Starfish Ventures, Square Peg Capital
8. Kenna Security
Kenna Security is a SaaS risk and vulnerability intelligence platform that measures cybersecurity risks and prioritizes remediation efforts.
Total Disclosed Funding: $25.3M
Latest Investment Round: $15M Series B
Select Investors: Tugboat Ventures, US Venture Partners, Costanoa Venture Capital
9. SafeBreach
SafeBreach provides a “hacker’s view” of an enterprise’s security posture to validate security controls, among other functions.
Total Disclosed Funding: $19M
Latest Investment Round: $15M Series A-II
Select Investors: Sequoia Capital Israel, Hewlett-Packard Ventures, Duetsche Telekom Capital Partners
10. AttackIQ
AttackIQ offers Fire Drill, a SaaS platform to continuously identify security gaps and validate an organization’s overall security posture.
Total Disclosed Funding: $8.8M
Latest Investment Round: $8.8M Series A
Select Investors: Telstra Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Index Ventures
11. RiskSense
RiskSense enables enterprises to uncover cyber risk, orchestrate remediation, and monitor the results.
Total Disclosed Funding: $7.31M
Latest Investment Round: $7M Series A + $310K Grant
Select Investors: Paladin Capital Group, Epic Ventures, New Mexico Economic Development Department
12. Cronus
Cronus has developed penetration testing software used to identify and eliminate network vulnerabilities.
Total Disclosed Funding: $5.7M
Latest Investment Round: $3.5M Series B
Select Investors: JANVEST Technologies
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