Investment in cybersecurity companies has grown by a factor of 5 over the past five years, a rate of growth that industry experts have called “unsustainable” at the macro level. Reaching over $5 billion USD in venture capital in 2018, some are predicting a 2019 taper to the massive growth. “There’s big money in IPO’s,” a principal with Strategic Cyber Ventures noted. “They read about big breaches and hackers every other week. And they come together and say ‘we need to start investing in cyber.’” Major investments in 2018 included $295 million to virtual private network app AnchorFree, $200 million to endpoint protection firm Crowdstrike, and $200 million to endpoint protection company Tanium. Some have linked the creation and empowerment of the chief information security officer (CISO) roll with the increase in spending, in addition to the continued digitalization of the economy and the proliferation of high profile hacks. Around 22% of venture capital investments in the sector went to foreign-based firms, double its 2014 rate and demonstrating strong foreign market growth.
Source: Cybersecurity investment set to level out after years of historic growth
