290 Cybersecurity Funding Rounds, 160 Acquisitions
1H 2025
Stay tuned for a link to the recorded webinar.
2025 is shaping up to be the second best year on record for the cybersecurity industry in terms of funding and M&A activity. Looking back at past editions of Security Yearbook I see that 2020 was a record for funding with 272 rounds totaling $10.7 billion. The following year saw that record shattered with $26 billion in funding followed by a drop to $17 billion the year after (2022). That jump in 2021 was fueled by zero percent interest rates held low to assist in the recovery from Covid. The shock of Silicon Valley Bank’s dramatic failure in 2023 ( a direct result of those low interest rates) led to a low $10.05 billion in venture investments that year. Last year the industry saw a nice recovery to $16 billion in funding.
Through the end of June in 2025 there have been 290 investment rounds representing a total of $8.5 billion. If the year continues like this, investment will exceed $17 billion. From today’s webinar slide deck:
Note that AI Security vendors represent 16% of those 290 investments while Data Security and GRC continued to get a lot of interest from investors. Also pay attention to the data that could only be derived from the IT-Harvest Dashboard. The average size of a company receiving funding so far this year was 128 head count. Also, that the average growth rate YTD was 28%. That growth rate was above the minimum annual growth rate for the Cyber 150 during 2024.
Speaking of the Cyber 150, 25 of them have taken in new funding so far this year.
Cyera, Chainguard, and Persona have all graduated above the cut-off for inclusion in the Cyber 150 next year (max 500 people).
There is usually a coupling of investments and acquisitions, in that the same exuberance that leads to VCs making bets on cybersecurity leads both strategic and financial buyers to make bids for vendors to add to their portfolios or even to make their first foray into cybersecurity.
From today’s webinar:
A deal count of 160 trends slightly higher than the first half of 2024. I find the average size of 359 interesting as well as the age. Those numbers dispel the impression of fast returns in this space.
Tune in to today’s webinar for a deeper dive into the State of Cyber.