There was a lot of moving and shaking in the cybersecurity unicorn world in 2019.
It was a year that saw two of the biggest exits in cybersecurity history: CrowdStrike went public valued at $3.35 billion and Cloudflare rocketed 20% in its first day on the stock market.
Clearly, the cybersecurity market is booming. Recent data suggests that cybersecurity investing could reach $250 billion by 2023, and spending rose in 2019 more than any other industry. If that pace keeps up, there’s little to suggest that the cybersecurity “bubble” will burst any time soon.
A number of cybersecurity companies are firmly in the club of private companies worth $1 billion or more. These unicorns represent some of the best talent, technologies and offerings in cybersecurity, but the club is getting crowded. Now that CrowdStrike and Cloudflare have graduated to the public market, there are a number of cybersecurity companies that could make the leap.
Tanium
Valued at about $6.7 billion, Tanium is one of the largest cybersecurity unicorns. Based in Emeryville, Calif., the company is an all-in-one endpoint security platform that gives IT and network administrators visibility into the health of their organization by allowing them to look at all the connected devices on its network. Its technology is found across half of the Fortune 100, including Amazon, Target and Visa.
The company, backed by Andreessen Horowitz and others, has raised about $800 million since it was founded in 2007. Today, it’s a profit powerhouse. Tanium scrapped its plans to go public in 2018 after its Series E fundraise of $200 million, but was widely anticipated to try again in 2019. It didn’t. Will 2020 be the year?
Kaseya
Kaseya may not be a household name, but it’s a major player in the managed IT space. The company, valued at more than $2 billion, is an outsourced IT provider for companies without the resources or staffing to manage it themselves. In the last year, the company has signed on more than 5,000 customers, amassing over 40,000 clients to its portfolio, representing a year for explosive growth.
The Miami-based company’s chief executive Fred Voccola said in October 2018 that the “wheels are in motion” on an IPO, but that it would take some 18 months to complete, putting a potential timeline for going public squarely in the middle of this year.
Cybereason
Founded by former Israeli intelligence officers and headquartered in Boston, Cybereason exploded onto the cybersecurity scene in less than a decade since its founding. Although the company offers an endpoint-protection platform, its firm footing and deep-rooted expertise in malware research gives the company a significant and ongoing advantage over some of its competitors by funneling its findings into its technologies.
Cybereason has raised some $400 million to date, thanks to investments from SoftBank, Spark Capital and others, and is valued at about $1.5 billion. After it raised $200 million in August, the company said it planned to file IPO paperwork within two years. But as a natural interest in the company rises, it’s not unreasonable to expect (or want) an accelerated timeline on going public.
Auth0
Identity management may not sound sexy, but it’s a big deal. Making sure that the right people have the correct access to systems, networks and internal company resources is a cybersecurity staple. But few do it right. Auth0 is one of the major players with a wealth of customer trust under its belt. Although it counts already public companies — Okta and CyberArk — as competitors, Auth0 is still raking in funding.
The company raised $103 million in May from Sapphire Ventures, with participation from K9 Ventures and Telstra Ventures and others, pushing its valuation over the billion-dollar mark. Auth0 is not yet profitable, the company’s founder told TechCrunch, as it continues to reinvest in the company’s growth.
Illumio
And Illumio, last but certainly not least, is firmly in the unicorn club. Valued at $1.2 billion at its Series D raise in 2017, it’s now likely far higher — even if the company has never publicly commented on its dollar worth. Illumio helps prevent the spread of data breaches using its micro-segmentation technology — in other words, putting a secure perimeter around apps and data, making it harder for adversaries to make off with a company’s entire store of data.
The company hired a chief financial officer after its $65 million Series E raise, although it was reportedly not to take the company public or anticipate further investment rounds. TechCrunch alum Kate Clark said last year that Illumio was one of the few cybersecurity companies with the potential to jump into the public markets. It never happened. Will it make the leap this year?