When I started IT-Harvest in 2005 my goal was to collect all the data on all the cybersecurity vendors. That is a moving target because the space changes continuously. There are startups coming out of stealth every month, and there are acquisitions almost every day. According to AGC Partners there were 338 M&A transactions in 2022. That is 10% of all the vendors!
Keep that astounding rate of acquisitions in mind when looking at this chart. These are the founding years of every vendor still operating. This chart goes back to 1969 so it does not include Bundesdruckerei which was founded in 1763!
Of 3,241 cybersecurity vendors 254 were founded in 2015. Does that mean the 28 that were founded last year indicates a dramatic decline in startups? Not at all. It takes two or more years for a startup to be discoverable. There could be 200 new founders working feverishly on their products and pitch decks for their ideas which we will learn about in coming years.
The average age for the 3,108 vendors founded after 1982 is 12.3 years.
Looking at 1982, there were ten vendors founded that year that are still with us. Each has a different story. Symantec has gone through many gyrations and Fortra changed its name from Help Systems just last year.
RSA Security was founded as an encryption company in 1982. Its biggest component today is the SecurID OTP token product.
See Security Yearbook 2022 for a history of these companies and the entire industry.
What about those vendors founded in 2015?
Note that the number for the UK was higher than Israel in 2015! Once again, that is probably explained by the faster growth and acquisition rate for Israeli cybersecurity companies.
Here are some of those 253 vendors founded in 2015.
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