5 Hot Cybersecurity Companies At XChange Security 2022
From a cyber-insurance broker to a threat intelligence startup, the cybersecurity industry was well represented at XChange Security 2022.
In the end, this piece could easily have been called ‘30 Cool Cybersecurity Companies at XChange Security 2022,’ since there’s always a great story or product to be told about every company, if you dig deep enough.
This is especially true in the booming world of cybersecurity, arguably the hottest and most dynamic tech subsector today, with billions of dollars a year flowing to startup companies and new security companies seemingly being formed every week across the globe.
But the following five firms did garner some attention this past week at XChange Security 2022 in Reston, Va., where they and others touted their products and services to IT service providers from around the country. The two-day conference, which ended on Tuesday, was hosted by The Channel Company, parent company of CRN.
Mostly, the following five firms are relatively small and young, with often intriguing products and/or histories of interest to channel players.
Here’s a brief look at those companies.
* Zorus
* Cyberint
DataStream
This isn’t your classic cybersecurity firm that provides security software and technical services to companies, usually via channel partners. Instead, DataStream is an insurance broker, founded in 2020 and officially launched last year.
Owned by the U.K.-based Envelop Risk and backed by SoftBank, DataStream’s main goal is to sell cyber-insurance to companies at a time when they need it most, due to the alarming increase in cyberattacks against both big and small companies across the globe
But the increasing demand for cyber-insurance has also led to higher premium costs and even policy denials from insurance carriers.
That’s where Larry Meador, the new channel chief at DataStream, comes into play. He said DataStream is now marketing policies to companies from as many as 30 cyber-insurance carriers, mostly via MSPs and other channel players.
Meador said DataStream also provides potential customers with “cyber-insurance readiness assessments,” i.e., a checklist of security compliance requirements they need to address before getting cyber-insurance.
“The bottom line is we want to make it easier for companies to get insurance,” Meador told CRN.
Blackpoint Cyber
On the surface, Blackpoint Cyber appears to be yet another highly promising cybersecurity startup, specializing in MDR, log-in compliance and, most recently, cloud support. It recently raised $10 million from various private investors, bringing its total raised to about $26 million since it effectively went commercial in 2019.
But Blackpoint can actually trace its roots back to nearly a decade ago, when it was founded by former U.S. Department of Defense and intelligence cybersecurity experts, including Jon Murchison, who formerly worked at the National Security Agency and who today is CEO of Blackpoint.
Among the firm’s big-name board members, advisors and/or investors are Gen. Michael Hayden (Ret.), former director of the CIA and former director of the NSA; Ron Clark, former deputy under secretary of Homeland Security and former White House National Security Council director and acting senior director; Tom Donohue Jr., president and founder of Adelphi Capital, LLC (chairman of the Blackpoint board); and John Stewart, former senior vice president and chief security and trust officer at Cisco.
At this week’s XChange Security 2022, Murchison told CRN that Blackpoint’s products provide protection for both MSPs and large enterprise customers.
Quickpass Cybersecurity
The Vancouver, B.C.-based Quickpass Cybersecurity, provider of Privileged Access Management (PAM) and helpdesk security automation, announced last month that it had raised another $3 million, completing its Series A funding round at $7 million, led by Arthur Ventures.
And for channel players, Jimmy Hatzell, director of marketing at the 40-employee Quickpass, has good news: “We only work with MSPs.”
Via its channel-only strategy, Hatzell said Quickpass’s revenue doubled over the past six months.
“We’ve recently gained a lot of traction in the MSP community,” said Hatzell. “Word seems to have gotten out about us. We work with any and all types of MSPs.”
Zorus
Founded five years ago by a group of former Datto executives, Zorus definitely made its presence known within the cybersecurity industry last December when it announced it had raised $9 million in Series A funding, led by Asymmetric Capital Partners.
The Norwalk, Conn.-based Zorus sells AI-focused web filtering and productivity monitoring software as a service through the MSP network, Chris Keith, vice president of sales and marketing at Zorus, told CRN. “We’re a channel-only company,” he said.
Zorus’ board includes Austin McChord, founder of Datto and CEO of Casana; and Paul Sagan, a senior advisor at General Catalyst and former CEO of Akamai and non-executive chair of Datto.
Cyberint
The Tel Aviv-based Cyberint, a threat intelligence company, is yet another startup at XChange Security 2022 that recently received new funding, this time $40 million in a late-stage round led by StageOne Late Stage Arm, Neva SGR (part of Intesa Sanpaolo Group, Italy’s largest bank), and Viola Growth.
At XChange Security 2022, Avi Mileguir, vice president of sales in the U.S., told CRN that Cyberint provides one platform that includes threat intelligence, attack surface management, and digital risk protection. It sells to all sorts of companies, big and small, from 50-employee firms to major banks and hospitals.
Among other things, Cyberint does dark web research as part of its intelligence work. The firm has its U.S. headquarters in Boston, with other offices in the Netherlands, Mexico, Singapore and the Philippines, said Mileguir.