The rash of headline-grabbing cyber attacks on major companies over the past few years has made one thing abundantly clear: it’s not enough to rely only on traditional security tools. To venture capitalists, that means there’s money to be made by betting on startups developing new ones.
VCs are hoping to get a piece of companies’ increased spending on cybersecurity. In 2014 Gregg Steinhafel, the CEO of Target, became the first head of a major company to lose his job over a data breach. Now, worried company leaders are giving their security units a “blank check,” says Scott Weiss, a general partner who specializes in security at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz: “The CEO has said, ‘Look, whatever you need, you’ve got.’”
