Directorate Announces Record High Numbers Reported by Cybersecurity Firms
In recent news, the National Cyber Directorate of the State of Israel revealed that the cybersecurity companies in the country successfully set a number of new records in the year 2021. These record-high numbers were reported in different areas, such as acquisition values, exports, and funding. The local cybersecurity firms carried out more than 100 deals in the previous year and raised a record figure of $8.8 billion. Moreover, the directorate revealed that 11 of these companies turned into unicorns, whereas some switched to private companies with a valuation of more than $1 billion.
The total amount raised by the local Israeli organization in the year 2021 came out to $2.9 billion. This number is reportedly almost triple the figure recorded in 2020. However, 2020 itself was considered to be a record year. On the other hand, the annual total recorded for 2021, by the companies in the Jewish state, amounts to 40% of the overall funding raised by cybersecurity firms across the globe. With 11 cybersecurity companies in the country turning into unicorns, another record was set by Israel. The cyber directorate further added that one in three cybersecurity unicorns in the world now represents a company owned by an Israeli.
Further data was also released by the Israeli Export Institute. It indicated that the overall exports made by cybersecurity companies from the State of Israel amounted to around $11 billion in the year 2021. In the previous year, 40 acquisition agreements were also carried out pertaining to Israeli companies, which were acquired by both local, as well as foreign companies. The worth of these details was estimated to be around $3.5 billion.
Notable acquisitions from these included XM Cyber, a well-known cybersecurity firm founded by the former chief of Mossad, Tamir Pardo. The company was bought out for around $700 million by the Schwarz Group in Germany. In addition, Guardicore, a cybersecurity startup in Israel was purchased by Akamai Technologies for an estimate of $600 million. The latter is a public American cybersecurity company, which is regularly traded on the Nasdaq. Furthermore, four cybersecurity firms based in the State of Israel decided to go public in the year 2021, as revealed by the directorate.
One of these companies was SentinelOne, which had its IPO in June of 2021 at the New York Stock Exchange. It had managed to raise a total of $1.2 billion while boasting a valuation of no less than $9 billion. Consequently, SentinelOne was lauded for successfully conducting the largest IPO in the history of cybersecurity firms. SentinelOne, therefore, joined six additional cybersecurity companies, which either originated in Israel or were founded by Israelis, in the American markets. These companies include CyberArk Software Ltd. and Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. They each boast a valuation of $5.7 billion and $16 billion respectively.
In addition, cybersecurity firms that raised significant amounts in the year 2021 included a startup, Wiz. The company managed to pull in around $400 million after conducting several rounds last year. Orca Security, on the other hand, managed to bag more than $550 million as separate investments, which included funds from Capital G, Redpoint Ventures, Alphabet, and Temasek.
