Top 20 Cybersecurity Startups to Watch in 2021
The cybersecurity space has grown rapidly amid the pandemic and an increased focus on IT.
Out of more than 30 startups in the space with more than $1 billion valuation, nearly half (13) of them achieved that unicorn status since December 2020.
Also, Gartner predicts 40% of boards of directors will have a cybersecurity committee by 2025, a 4x increase from today.
We’ve prepared a list of 20 fast-growing startups that focus on tackling cybersecurity issues.
1. Axonius
5-year search growth: 8800%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2017
Location: New York, NY
Funding: $465M (Series D)
What they do: Axonius is a cybersecurity asset management platform for enterprise clients in industries including energy and retail. The platform has 317 pre-built integrations designed to automate inventory management. Specifically, the Axonius software identifies loopholes in asset security based on company cybersecurity policies. And sends automated alerts sent to relevant team members when a potential loophole has been found.
2. Snyk
5-year search growth: 654%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2015
Location: Boston, MA
Funding: $752M (Series E)
What they do:
Snyk is a software company
Snyk is a software company that creates developer-first analysis tools to find and fix open source vulnerabilities. Additionally, the product monitors loopholes in the application code. 2.2 million developers currently use the product.
3. Orca Security
5-year search growth: 4000%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2019
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Funding: $292M (Series C)
What they do:
Orca Security develops a security product for cloud infrastructure. It supports AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. Orca Security’s software focuses on identifying system risks, including vulnerabilities and malware. Then, prioritizes each risk based on level of importance.
4. Cyware
5-year search growth: 1150%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2016
Location: New York, NY
Funding: $43M (Series B)
What they do:
Cyware builds Virtual Cyber Fusion Centers enabling SOAR and threat intelligence automation for organizations. Cyware products include automated analysis of threats designed to help with proactive threat investigations.
5. Lacework
5-year search growth: 925%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2015
Location: San Jose, CA
Funding: $599M (Series D)
What they do:
Lacework helps with cloud security automation. The platform covers configuration assessment, threat detection, host intrusion detection, and compliance checks within multi-cloud environments. The software integrates with environments built with AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Kubernetes.
6. EclecticIQ
5-year search growth: 3800%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2014
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Funding: $48.83M (Series C)
What they do:
EclecticIQ is a cyber threat intelligence provider. The company’s software gathers relevant intelligence, integrates data into the enterprise with appropriate distribution to stakeholders, and provides reporting features.
7. SentinelOne
5-year search growth: 1150%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2013
Location: Mountain View, CA
Funding: $696.5M (Series F)
What they do:
SentinelOne develops a cybersecurity application that combines EPP, EDR, IoT security, and CWPP into a unified offering. The company’s software helps detect malicious attacks and even provides fully automated responses to them.
8. Arctic Wolf Networks
5-year search growth: 533%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2012
Location: Eden Prairie, MN
Funding: $348.2M (Series E)
What they do:
Arctic Wolf Networks provides cloud security software and managed services that offer continuous monitoring and alerts. The platform uses APIs and machine learning to provide real-time analysis. And concierge security teams help fill the operational gap for personalized strategic guidance.
9. Tanium
5-year search growth: 100%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2007
Location: Kirkland, WA
Funding: $1B (Series Unknown)
What they do:
Tanium is endpoint management and security tool. Customers can retrieve data on every endpoint and execute changes in seconds. Which allows organizations to boost protection from cyber threats.
10. Privacera
5-year search growth: 5000%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2016
Location: Fremont, CA
Funding: $67.3M (Series B)
What they do:
Privacera is enterprise software that combines data discovery, classification, centralized access management, and data de-identification in its platform. Their data security and governance platform helps with sharing information without compromising regulatory compliance requirements.
11. Darktrace
5-year search growth: 178%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2013
Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom
Funding: $230.5M (Series E)
What they do:
Darktrace is a cyber threat defense system that uses machine learning to detect and respond to cyber threats. Darktrace’s tech identifies various types of threats, including insider threats, supply chain risks, and infrastructure vulnerabilities.
12. Claroty
5-year search growth: 500%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2015
Location: New York, NY
Funding: $100M (Series Unknown)
What they do:
Claroty is a cybersecurity toolset designed for industrial enterprise clients. Features include threat detection, remote access, and a management console solution. Specifically, the Claroty platform helps enterprise clients reveal, protect and manage OT, IoT, and IIoT assets.
13. Deep Instinct
5-year search growth: 600%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2015
Location: New York, NY
Funding: $92.1M (Series C)
What they do:
Deep Instinct is a cybersecurity platform specialized in malware protection. Their product applies deep learning technology to proactively prevent attacks from happening. Deep Instinct’s solution supports more than 100 file types, across all endpoints among most common operating systems.
14. Arkose Labs
5-year search growth: 1900%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2013
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $36.5M (Series Unknown)
What they do:
Arkose Labs is a fraud and abuse prevention service. Their solutions span across multiple use cases, including malicious scraping, fake account registration, and account takeover attacks.
15. Nozomi Networks
5-year search growth: 400%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2013
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $52.5M (Series Unknown)
What they do:
Nozomi Networks is a cybersecurity platform specialized in OT and IoT protection. The company toolset provides real-time ICS monitoring, hybrid threat detection, asset inventory, and vulnerability assessment.
16. GitGuardian
5-year search growth: 400%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2013
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $12M (Series A)
What they do:
GitGuardian is a system that scans all GitHub public activity. The monitoring software helps prevent data leakage of API secret tokens, database credentials and certificates. And sends automated alerts when any of these threats are detected.
17. Immuta
5-year search growth: 170%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2014
Location: College Park, MD
Funding: $68.2M (Series C)
What they do:
Immuta is a cloud-based data governance platform. The unified product interface includes sensitive data discovery, data access control, and data usage audit features that allow rapid access for relevant teams.
18. Red Canary
5-year search growth: 233%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2014
Location: Denver, CO
Funding: $129.9M (Series C)
What they do:
Red Canary is a multi-dimensional endpoint threat detection system. Their platform combines automated software with human analysis to detect and respond to malicious events.
19. Abnormal Security
5-year search growth: 1800%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2018
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $74M (Series B)
What they do:
Abnormal Security offers a cloud-based email security platform that protects against targeted attacks (their software operates within Office 365 and G Suite environments.) The main use case is helping to detect email account compromises, block phishing and malicious attacks, and providing automated incident response options.
20. Menlo Security
5-year search growth: 207%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2013
Location: Mountain View, CA
Funding: $250.5M (Series E)
What they do:
Menlo Security is a cybersecurity company that develops tools against malware and phishing. The company’s technology offers mirrors content from a remote browser in the cloud in order to enable secure web access.
Conclusion
That concludes our list of 20 growing startups in the cybersecurity space.
From endpoint protection to email security, the products that these startups are creating tackle a wide range of cybersecurity business needs. With ongoing digital transformation, we can expect further growth in the cybersecurity space in 2021, 2022 and beyond.