Startup Trends: 5 emerging cybersecurity companies

Google’s recent attempt to buy cybersecurity provider Wiz for $23 billion underscored the expanding interest in fast-growing cybersecurity firms. Wiz declined the offer, opting instead to stay independent as sales grow.

Wiz’s bet on itself comes as organizational spending on security tech continues to increase. Worldwide, end-user spending on information security will reach $212 billion by 2025, a 15% jump from 2024, according to a report by Gartner. Gartner predicts in the report that 17% of cyber threats will involve AI by 2027 and will require a ‘spike’ in the amount of cybersecurity resources needed to secure it.

Here’s an overview of some emerging private cybersecurity firms that have shown innovation and investor interest in the past year.

Wiz, a cloud security provider

Wiz partners with leading cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Azure, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to help organizations secure everything they build in the cloud. Forty percent of Fortune 100 companies use the company's solutions, including Colgate-Palmolive, Fox, Morgan Stanley, and Slack.

In July, New York-based Wiz declined a $23 billion acquisition offer from Alphabet's Google, opting for an IPO and reaching $1 billion in annual recurring revenue, according to news reports. The company is now in talks for a sale of existing shares at a valuation of $15 billion to $20 billion, according to Bloomberg News. Existing shareholders would be allowed to tender between $500 million to $700 million, according to the report.

Wiz’s Forge Price™ is $21.52, giving it a valuation of $12.52 billion, based on the company’s last funding round in May 2024.

SandboxAQ, a provider of AI solutions to B2B companies

SandboxAQ is a provider of AI and quantum technology tools. SandboxAQ was spun off from Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., as an independent, growth capital-backed company in 2022. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is SandboxAQ's chairman.

In July, consulting firm Accenture and SandboxAQ announced they expanded the partnership to help organizations secure data and strengthen encryption against data breaches.

The Mountain View, California-based company’s investors include T. Rowe Price, Eric Schmidt, Breyer Capital, Guggenheim Partners, Marc Benioff, Thomas Tull, and Paladin Capital Group.

SandboxAQ has a Forge Price™ of $6.46 as of October 2, 2024, giving it an implied valuation of $2.29 billion. That valuation is a 32% discount to the company’s last funding round in March 2022.

Tanium, a provider of converged endpoint management

Tanium provides real-time insights and endpoint data to organizations' IT and security operations staff. The company's Tanium XEM Platform is real-time, seamless, and autonomous, supporting endpoints, risk management, and incident response. Tanium's endpoint intelligence allows companies to use AI to identify and manage risks: The company's real-time endpoint data is integrated into Microsoft's Copilot for Security and ServiceNow, a cloud-based enterprise software.

The Kirkland, Washington-based company’s clients include all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces as well as leading commercial banks and global retailers, according to its website.

Tanium’s Forge Price™ is $4.38 as of October 2, 2024, giving it an implied valuation of $3.43 billion, a 61% discount to its last funding round in June 2020.

Snyk, a developer security platform

Snyk is a developer-centric security platform that allows application and cloud developers to secure their whole application, including finding vulnerabilities in proprietary code, open-source dependencies, and cloud infrastructure. The company recently released Snyk AppRisk Pro, which pairs AI with application context from third-party integrations to help application security and development teams address risks and accelerate fixes. The company also announced the integration of its Snyk Analytics into the Snowflake AI Data Cloud.

Snyk’s customers include Anheuser-Busch InBev, Atlassian, Salesforce, and Spotify, according to their website.

Boston-based Snyk’s Forge Price™ is $7.59 as of October 2, 2024, giving it an implied valuation of $4.89 billion. That figure is a 34% discount to Synk’s last funding round.

Arctic Wolf, a provider of security operations

Arctic Wolf helps organizations guard against cyberattacks through its Arctic Wolf Security Operations Cloud platform.

Nearly half of organizations believe they suffered a cybersecurity breach last year, according to an Arctic Wolf study from 2024. The Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based company's platform analyzes over 5.5 trillion security events weekly from 5,700 customers, boiling each alert to a single actionable ticket for a firm's security staff to review. The company has the highest revenue growth rate of the 46 security services vendors included in a recent report from consulting firm Gartner.

Arctic Wolf recently released a free version of its Cyber JumpStart Portal, enabling businesses of all sizes to access a suite of cyber risk management tools.

Arctic Wolf’s Forge Price™ is $6.63 as of October 2, 2024. That gives the company an implied valuation of $3.5 billion, a 19% discount to the company’s last funding round in July 2021.