Proactive defense and predicting future threats are the new areas being emphasized in the cybersecurity industry. Companies in the space are increasingly using machine learning to thwart attacks early or before they emerge, and mitigate damage when it occurs.
Startups are also offering solutions that range from digital defense training for employees, containerization of cloud network elements for continuous monitoring and quarantining during an attack, real-time analytics on the performance of industrial internet networks, and more.
Despite increased attention on cybersecurity — in light of high-profile recent attacks, including the compromise of millions of Yahoo accounts and government email breaches — a leveling-off of investors’ appetite for cybersecurity this year signals that funding for these companies could be more selective than in recent years past.
With this in mind, we identified 21 early-stage cybersecurity startups to watch. To select them we used our Mosaic algorithm, which tracks the health of private companies. Mosaic has three components, which gauge a company’s health in terms of financing, industry category, as well as overall momentum (the latter component includes jobs data, social and media mentions, web traffic, and more).
We noted several themes among the companies we selected, including:
- Predictive threat intelligence
- Real-time network monitoring
- Modern-day virtual containers and/or cloud data security
- Employee-targeted cyber defense measures
The companies on our list all leverage one or more of these themes. They are all early-stage startups (Seed/Angel or Series A) and have raised funding this year. Scroll down to see the full list.
1. StackPath
StackPath is a security platform for communicating real-time threats against a network to a data repository powered by machine learning, which is accessible to application developers, micro-services, connected devices, and the global IoT.
Select Investors: ABRY Partners
Total Disclosed Funding: $180M
2. Virtru
Virtru is an email and file encryption application company that allows users to secure sensitive information with end-to-end encryption, access control, and data loss-prevention tools. The product is free for personal use and has tiered pricing for enterprises.
Select Investors: Bessemer Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Soros Fund Management
Total Disclosed Funding: $39M
3. enSilo
enSilo offers a real-time data protection platform against advanced targeted attacks by stopping hackers from establishing outbound malicious connections — with the overall aim of protecting enterprises from losses due to malicious data tampering and unauthorized data exfiltration.
Select Investors: Carmel Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Rembrandt Venture Partners
Total Disclosed Funding: $21M
4. SafeBreach
SafeBreach uses a proprietary set of research and real-world investigative data with the aim of proactively predicting attacks, validating security controls, and improving an organization’s attack response capabilities.
Select Investors: Hewlett-Packard Ventures, Maverick Ventures, Sequoia Capital Israel
Total Disclosed Funding: $19M
5. Indegy
Indegy provides real-time situational awareness, visibility, and security for Industrial Control Systems (ICS) used across critical infrastructures — energy, water utilities, petrochemical plants, manufacturing facilities, etc.
Select Investors: Aspect Ventures, Magma Venture Partners, Vertex Ventures
Total Disclosed Funding: $18M
6. AVANAN
AVANAN offers a cloud-based security platform to provide security solutions for public SaaS applications. The company is designed for organizations that need to monitor and protect employees’ use of the cloud.
Select Investors: Greenfield Cities, Magma Venture Partners, StageOne Ventures
Total Disclosed Funding: $16.4M
7. ThinAir Labs
ThinAir Labs equips enterprise IT and security officers with visibility into their organization’s data, to see how sensitive information is accessed and shared. The company also offers investigative tools that can pinpoint where, when, and how data is breached, in real-time.
Select Investors: Workday Ventures, Y Combinator
Total Disclosed Funding: $15.1M
8. Tigera
Tigera is focused on solving networking and security problems inherent in enterprise cloud operations, namely secure application and workload delivery across private, public, and hybrid clouds.
Select Investors: New Enterprise Associates, Wing Venture Capital
Total Disclosed Funding: $13M
9. Twistlock
Twistlock offers virtual container security — enabling enterprises to enforce policy, monitor and audit activity, and identify and isolate threats.
Select Investors: Rally Ventures, Ten Eleven Ventures, YL Ventures
Total Disclosed Funding: $12.5M
10. Verodin
Verodin specializes in allowing customers to improve cybercrime prevention, detection, and threat response capabilities as well as safely execute advanced cyber attack simulations.
Select Investors: Blackstone Group, Cisco Investments, Crosslink Capital
Total Disclosed Funding: $12.1M
11. Veriflow Systems
Veriflow leverages algorithms that predict an enterprise’s network-wide data flow to pinpoint vulnerabilities in network-wide security and bolster resilience policies.
Select Investors: National Science Foundation, New Enterprise Associates, US Department of Defense
Total Disclosed Funding: $11.1M
12. CyberX
CyberX is designed for securing the industrial internet by detecting abnormal behaviors on a system or network. This is accomplished by analyzing the operational behavior of an IIoT network using big data analytics and machine learning.
Select Investors: UpWest Labs, GlenRock Israel, Swarth Group, Glilot Capital
Total Disclosed Funding: $11M
13. Interset
Interset utilizes data collectors, lightweight endpoint sensors, and advanced behavioral analytics for early attack detection and forensic intelligence to protect critical data across the manufacturing, life sciences, high-tech, finance, government, aerospace and defense, and securities brokerage industries.
Select Investors: Anthem Venture Partners, In-Q-Tel, Toba Capital
Total Disclosed Funding: $10M
14. Terbium Labs
Terbium Labs‘ first product is called Matchlight, a “dark web” intelligence platform used for finding an organization’s compromised or stolen data, especially core intellectual property, as soon as it appears in illicit markets.
Select Investors: .406 Ventures
Total Disclosed Funding: $10.1M
15. Phantom Cyber
Phantom is an enterprise security automation and orchestration platform that serves as an operating system for an organization’s digital security products.
Select Investors: Blackstone Group, Foundation Capital, In-Q-Tel
Total Disclosed Funding: $9.2M
16. EclecticIQ
EclecticIQ provides a platform which enables security information exchange, collaborative analyst workflow, and helps ensure integration of threat intelligence detection, prevention, and response capabilities.
Select Investors: INKEF Capital, KPN Ventures, NATO Cyber Security Incubator
Total Disclosed Funding: $8.6M
17. KnowBe4
KnowBe4 provides a platform for organizations to stop socially engineered threats by training employees to recognize red flags before attackers infiltrate a company’s systems.
Select Investors: Elephant Partners
Total Disclosed Funding: $8M
18. Bayshore Networks
Bayshore provides a cloud-based software platform for securing the IoT, providing IT departments with visibility into tech infrastructure, networks, applications, machines, and employees.
Select Investors: Trident Capital
Total Disclosed Funding: $6.6M
19. PacketSled
PacketSled enables governance and compliance organizations to continuously monitor, understand, and automate threat detection and response capabilities.
Select Investors: Blu Venture Investors, JHS Ventures, Keshif Ventures
Total Disclosed Funding: $5.52M
20. Protenus
Protenus’ automated patient privacy monitoring platform analyzes user behavior on a system or network to detect and resolve HIPAA violations related to the unauthorized access of electronic health records.
Select Investors: Arthur Ventures, Baltimore Angels, Cognosante
Total Disclosed Funding: $5.15M
21. Cybrary
Cybrary is an online social and educational network for cybersecurity professionals. The company provides free cybersecurity training classes, from beginner to advanced.
Select Investors: Inner Loop Capital, New Stack Ventures, Arthur Ventures
Total Disclosed Funding: $1.7M
Want more data on high-momentum startups? Log in to CB Insights or sign up for free below.
If you aren’t already a client, sign up for a free trial to learn more about our platform.