Cyber Firms Island, Corelight Raise Big

Cybersecurity venture funding saw a small bounce back in the first quarter of the year and a couple of large raises Tuesday may indicate that trend continuing.

Dallas-based enterprise browser developer Island raised a $175 million Series D at a $3 billion valuation — doubling its last valuation from less than a year ago. The round was led by new investor Coatue and existing investor Sequoia Capital.

Island is no stranger to big-money rounds. In October, it raised  a $100 million Series C led by Prysm Capital that valued the company at $1.5 billion. In March 2022, it announced a $115 million Series B at a $1.3 billion valuation led by Insight Partners. Island has raised $487 million in total investments to date, per the company.

More money

In addition, San Francisco-based open-network detection and response startup Corelight locked up a $150 million Series E investment led by Accel, with additional strategic investment from Cisco Investments and the CrowdStrike Falcon Fund.

Founded in 2013, the company — which uses network and cloud activity to hunt and respond to threats — has raised nearly $310 million, per Crunchbase.

The rounds are the latest signs that investors are warming back up to cyber after venture funding declined through most of last year.

Cyber startups raised nearly $2.7 billion in 154 deals in Q1, per Crunchbase data. That dollar figure is the highest since Q1 of last year, when similar startups raised just less than $2.9 billion in 228 deals. However, the Q1 2024 dollar figure represents a 69% increase from the previous quarter, when cyber startups raised just $1.6 billion in 148 deals.

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Illustration: Dom Guzman