Karl Sharman’s Post

So many funding rounds and some intriguing strategic acquisitions over the past ten days. 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐅𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐒 & 𝐀𝐂𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐘𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐘 Funding  Nozomi Networks has raised $100 million at Series E Zama has raised $73 million at Series A led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs BigID raises $60 million from Riverwood Capital DTEX Systems has raised $50 million at Series E led by CapitalG Todyl has raised $50 million at Series B led by Base10 Partners  Eye Security has raised $39 million led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. IDfy has raised $27 million led by Elev8 Venture Partners Cayosoft has raised $22.5 million led by Centana Growth Partners  CyberSaint has raised $21 million at Series A led by Riverside Acceleration Capital BotGuard OÜ has raised $13 million in a Series A round led by MMC Ventures steadybit has raised $6 million at Series A led by Paladin Capital Group  Redcoat AI has $4.24 million in funding led by Pear VC CodeZero has raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round led by Ballistic Ventures Nullify has raised $3.4 million at seed led by Root Ventures & Two Sigma Ventures  Auguria, Inc. has raised an investment from SYN Ventures & SentinelOne Acquisitions 🇺🇸 Wiz has acquired Gem Security for $350 million 🇮🇱 🇺🇸 Crane NXT has acquired OpSec Security 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 Zscaler has acquired Avalor Security (a Zscaler company) 🇮🇱 🇺🇸 SHI International Corp. has acquired Moot 🇺🇸 #cybersecurity #ipo #venturecapital #privateequity #mergers #acquisitions #technology

According to PitchBook, less than $30 billion in exit value–including IPOs and M&A— was generated to send back to LPs in Q2. Sapphire Ventures President, Partner, and Co-Founder Jai Das recently shared his perspective with Madeline Renbarger and Eric Newcomer on the scarcity of exits challenging the venture industry, highlighting the then proposed acquisition of cybersecurity firm Wiz by Google for $23 billion as a noteworthy outlier, which was recently called off. 👇 “I think it’s an exception. Wiz has always been an exceptional company even when it started.” Read more in Newcomer (Link in Comments). #VentureCapital #Startups

RunSafe Security Inc. completed a $12 million Series B funding round with investments from various participants, aiming to boost product development and expand its market reach to EMEA and APAC regions. The funding round was led by Critical Ventures and SineWave Ventures Partners, along with other prominent venture capital firms. At RunSafe Security, we focus on empowering clients to preserve uninterrupted business operations. Our approach involves utilizing our unique cyberhardening technology for embedded systems and devices, which works to obstruct attacker economics, minimize vulnerabilities, guarantee operational consistency, and safeguard communication integrity. The recent $12 million Series B funding round, involving prominent investors like Critical Ventures, SineWave Venture Partners, BMW i Ventures, Working Lab Capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Hyperlink Ventures, Iron Gate Ventures, and Alsop Louie Partners, will expedite product innovation and expand our market reach to EMEA and APAC regions. Factacy.ai Congratulates and wishes them well. #innovation #management #digitalmarketing #technology #creativity #futurism #startups

TAC Infosec, which is backed by ace investor Vijay Kedia, filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) in January this year to list on NSE Emerge. The initial public offering (IPO) of SaaS cybersecurity startup TAC Infosec, also known as TAC Security, will open on March 27. The IPO will comprise a fresh issue of 28,29,600 equity shares. The price band for the IPO has been set at Rs 100-106 per share and the startup is looking to raise about Rs 29.9 Cr at the upper end of the price band. The lot size has been fixed at 1,200 equity shares. 🚀 Join the startup revolution! Follow StartupTrak for the latest and hottest startup news, inspiring stories, and game-changing innovations! 💯❤️🔥 . . #TACInfosecIPO #TACSecurity #VijayKedia #SaaSCybersecurity #InitialPublicOffering #NSEEmerging #DRHP #EquityShares #PriceBand #LotSize #IPODetails #StockMarket #InvestmentNews #CybersecurityStartup #TechIndustry #FinancialNews #PublicListing #MarketUpdate #AceInvestor #StartupNews #StartupTrak

How did last month’s events, including Wiz’s refusal of a massive bid from Google and the Crowdstrike outage, impact the tech M&A market? The busted $23 billion takeover of Wiz would’ve been one of Google’s most expensive acquisitions to date. Even though Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport rejected the deal, its mere existence bodes well for tech industry. And when a major competitor like Crowdstrike errs severely, it opens up market share for startups and and smaller businesses. This can lead to private equity firms and other buyers paying closer attention to new players in the sector. More info in this Pitchbook article here: https://hubs.la/Q02LrldW0 #Tech #BusinessOwner #Entrepreneurship #Acquisition https://hubs.la/Q02Lr1Cx0

#Startup News: Cybersecurity firm Rubrik went public in late April, gaining 16% on its first day of trading. Prior to its IPO, Rubrik’s Forge Price™ was $34.87 on April 25, 2024, valuing the company at $5.92 billion at the time. Rubrik's public debut is just the latest sign of an improving market for #IPOs. In March, Reddit, Inc. and Astera Labs went public, followed by @Ibotta in April with a strong first-day gain. Additionally, at least four more private companies are indicating their plans to go public soon, as hinted in filings and media reports. Read more on the latest on startups at https://lnkd.in/e_Yrm9ei #ForgeGlobal #startups #privatemarket ##startupnews

What’s more exciting than launching Superhero Capital Fund IV? Kicking it off with an investment in CyberUpgrade, an incredible Lithuanian team on a mission to transform cybersecurity! 🛡️🦾 CyberUpgrade is redefining what it means to be cyber-ready, bringing an AI “copilot” to life that helps companies of all sizes keep their defenses strong, without breaking a sweat. We’re beyond proud to back this team as they tackle one of today’s biggest challenges, making security simple, smart, and accessible to everyone. Congratulations on this fantastic achievement to the CyberUpgrade team — Aurimas Bakas, Andrius Minkevičius, Nojus Antanas Bendoraitis and Algirdas Stasiunaitis! We’re thrilled to support your mission as you break down barriers in an industry that’s more important than ever. A big shoutout as well to our fantastic co-investors: Specialist VC, FIRSTPICK, NGL Ventures, and angel heroes Marios S. Kalochoritis and Sergei Anikin (ex-CEO of Pipedrive). 🤝 Here’s to many milestones ahead! 🙌 #SuperheroCapital #CyberUpgrade #Startups #VC

Our tuesday corporate #infobit is about our partner ReachX . The platform connects us to investors ready to take action, enabling us to better engage with stakeholders. Here are some of their success stories: 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 🟢 Cryptosense Series A Fundraise: Cryptosense (acquired by SandboxAQ) raised over €4 million in their successful Series A funding round with ReachX's assistance. The company focuses on cybersecurity solutions, with ReachX playing a pivotal role in advising and executing the fundraise from international deep tech venture capital investors 🟢 Education Platform Fundraise: Another growth company in the education sector received support from ReachX for their fundraise, engaging venture capital firms and family offices through ReachX's expertise in advisory, negotiation, and execution. 🟢 PE Portfolio Company Bolt-On Acquisitions: ReachX aided a private equity portfolio company in executing six bolt-on acquisitions in seven months, advising the leadership team and ensuring successful integration and growth. 👉🏽 If you work with us, you work with them and few other partners that help us deliver tier 1 advisory service. #broker #investments #capitalmarkets #capitalprocurement #advisory 👓🫡 https://lnkd.in/eNQQKQHT

Sprinto, the innovative platform for risk and compliance automation, has recently secured $20 million in equity funding! Led by Accel and supported by existing investors Elevation Capital and Blume Ventures, this funding injection will propel Sprinto's mission to revolutionize how businesses tackle intricate regulatory landscapes and cyber risks. "Our primary goal is to intelligently adapt our product to evolving environments," states Girish Redekar, CEO and co-founder. With a dedicated focus on ramping up research and development efforts and bolstering product capabilities, Sprinto is set to provide even greater value to its global clientele. Since its inception in 2020 by Girish Redekar and Raghuveer Kancherla, Sprinto has been empowering businesses across more than 75 countries, spanning a wide array of sectors such as technology, finance, fintech, and healthcare. Now, armed with this new funding, Sprinto is gearing up to penetrate new markets and elevate customer experiences. "Our rapid growth underscores the trust our clients have in Sprinto," emphasizes Redekar. With plans to triple revenue this year, Sprinto is steadfastly focused on expanding its impact and cementing its leadership position in cloud security and compliance. Sprinto extends profound gratitude for the ongoing support of its investors and partners. Together, they are reshaping the landscape of risk and compliance automation. #startup #startupgrowth #sprinto #funding #fundraiseralert #fundingalert #autoomation #compliance #risk #allboutcorps

As I walked the expo floor at RSA, I couldn't help but think about the venture capital data for company failure rates and its effect on which companies will be at the expo next year... (Carta has some great data on this)... I think about startup failure across 3 dimensions: 1. Have they built a distinct advantage? Often this is 2 or more of the following: - Product experience advantage measured by time-to-value - Distribution advantage measured by channel or PLG performance - Data advantage measured by proprietary training data collected over time - Community advantage measured by member participation 2. Fundraising prowess: - Did their term sheets have liquidation preferences or other unfriendly terms? - did they raise too much at a crazy high valuation? - did they raise too little and hit a fundraising drought? 3. Execution discipline : - Did they effectively balance growth and efficiency? - Can they focus on 1-3 high-impact actions, or are they chasing shiny objects? - Can they quickly make hard cost-cutting decisions early and appropriately reinvest to extend their cashout date? Note: liquidation preferences (liq-pref) are terrible for employees (aka “common share holders”). I recently heard about a security company that raised at a unicorn valuation in 2021 but with 2x liq-pref, and are now raising a flat or slight upround with another 2x liq-pref term. Basically, what this means is that unless the company has a massive IPO or exit, most employees at that company will walk away with common shares worth nearly $0 [Liquidation preferences are terms used in venture capital financing to specify how the proceeds from the sale of the company are distributed among shareholders. They typically prioritize the repayment of investors before any proceeds are distributed to common shareholders, including employees holding stock options.] For Horizon3, these 3 areas are always top-of-mind for me... 1. We focused on building the product, distribution, and data advantage early 2. Every termsheet was founder-friendly with no liq-pref terms, which is why I love working with SignalFire, Craft, and Ridge 3. The hardest part of the job is deciding what NOT to do #startups #venturecapital #cybersecurity #infosec Horizon3.ai #founders