Cloud security, API security, and incident response are among the issues up-and-coming security companies are working on.

Kelly Sheridan, Former Senior Editor, Dark Reading

January 25, 2022

9 Slides

The changes in how organizations operate and the threats they face have exacerbated some challenges for security teams and created new ones. And there is no shortage of new infosec startups working to develop the technology to address businesses' needs.

"I see no signs of a decrease in the rate at which new companies are coming into cyber," says Rik Turner, principal analyst at Omdia. "The pandemic may even have accelerated them or simply refocused some of the founders' plans to address the changing market."

Chenxi Wang, managing general partner at Rain Capital, says organizations are working to innovate in several areas of security.

"Companies are focused on securing and protecting the modern infrastructure," she explains. As organizations move away from traditional data centers and traditional applications, the demand for tools to protect modern infrastructure — cloud, serverless, DevOps, microservices — has grown significantly. More new companies are building products to try and meet it.

Cloud security is a major area of venture capital investment, Gartner reported in a recent whitepaper. Venture capital investments in cloud security have grown 338.6% since 2016 and reached more than $7 billion in 2020. Of that, $2.49 billion was invested in 2020. Digital transformation and cloud adoption accelerated that year, of course, during the pandemic.

But the growth of cloud security has not slowed. Many of the startups here focus on cloud security in different capacities. Some are focused on the unique nature of incident response in the cloud; some aim to build technology that detects issues in public cloud workloads.

Other trends evident in modern startups include growing concerns about supply chain security, API security, and evolving authentication away from the traditional password. These security companies are seeking new ways to tackle the biggest problems organizations face.

All of the companies listed here were founded in 2017 or later. Read on to learn more about security's up-and-coming companies to watch.

About the Author(s)

Kelly Sheridan

Former Senior Editor, Dark Reading

Kelly Sheridan was formerly a Staff Editor at Dark Reading, where she focused on cybersecurity news and analysis. She is a business technology journalist who previously reported for InformationWeek, where she covered Microsoft, and Insurance & Technology, where she covered financial services. Sheridan earned her BA in English at Villanova University. You can follow her on Twitter @kellymsheridan.

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