Happy Holidays from the NightDragon team!
We are incredibly thankful for the vibrant NightDragon community we have seen continue to grow over the past year. We have seen our platform develop immensely, including expanding to 13 portfolio companies, 55+ leaders in our Advisor Council, 15 master service level strategic partnerships, 21+ portfolio days with top industry leaders, 34+ events, the launch of a new brand look and feel, and continued build out of the broader NightDragon community and thought leadership across the industry.
We were proud to reach these milestones and see such growth amidst a difficult economic climate for many companies and to help our portfolio navigate these tumultuous waters. What’s more, these investments in cybersecurity, safety, security and privacy are more important than ever as geopolitical tensions continue to rise and cyberattacks prove more devastating and sophisticated than ever before – a trend that will likely continue into 2023 and beyond.
We want to thank each and every one of you for being part of our NightDragon community. We look forward to continuing to engage with you to secure our world for tomorrow together.
From all of us at NightDragon, have a happy and healthy New Year!
The NightDragon Team
Named Growth Investor of the Year
NightDragon was proud to be named Growth Stage Investor of the Year by SC Magazine’s SC Awards. The award program is cybersecurity’s most prestigious and competitive program, recognizing the solutions, organizations, and people driving innovation and success in information security. The award was a strong validation of the value that NightDragon provides to our portfolio, as well as our mission to secure our world for tomorrow. Read more about the award win here.
Investments Made in 5 Companies
We were excited to announce multiple new investments and advisory relationships over the course of 2022:
Led a $75 million financing round in RapidSOS, the intelligent safety platform that provides turn-key monitoring, voice and data connectivity for 90+ tech companies, 50+ public safety vendors, and 15,000+ first responder agencies to help keep people safe in their communities.
Led a $100 million round in Immuta, the leader in data access and data security, alongside other new investor Snowflake Ventures. Immuta helps organizations automate access to data by discovering, securing, and monitoring data on any cloud service.
Led a $97 million round in Capella Space alongside existing investors DCVC and Cota Capital in Capella Space. Capella’s SAR (synthetic aperture radar) sensors are deployed across its seven satellites in orbit today and can penetrate all weather conditions – clouds, fog, smoke, rain – and capture clear imagery 24-7, day and night, providing unparalleled insight into what is happening anywhere on the globe at any given moment.
Led a $100 million growth round in ThriveDX alongside Prytek to accelerate the largest cybersecurity and digital education platform. A leader in digital skills training, ThriveDX collaborates with top-tier academic institutions and corporations worldwide to assist its partners in offering cutting-edge, skills-based cybersecurity training and advanced, professional development programs in digital technology.
Continued our investment in HUMAN Security alongside WestCap in a $100 million round to propel the company to its next phase of growth. HUMAN protects the world’s largest enterprises and internet platforms from sophisticated bot attacks and fraud across the domains of application security, digital advertising, and performance marketing.
Grew to 55+ Advisors
After launching our Advisory Council last year, NightDragon continued to grow the program in 2022. New additions to the expanded Council included industry leaders with expertise in product, go-to-market, government, executive management and marketing. They also include highly regarded Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) who are at the cutting edge of their fields and can provide a buyer’s perspective on the market, as well as exclusive experts in innovative technology areas such as Zero Trust, crypto, automation and critical infrastructure.
See the full list of NightDragon Advisors and team members here.
Launched New Strategic Partnerships
NightDragon continued to build on NightScale, our proprietary platform of people, programs, playbooks and partnerships available to our portfolio companies to help accelerate growth. New additions were added across the core pillars of the platform, including ND Go-to-Market, ND Amplify, ND Government Services and other areas.
New partnerships and alliances include:
- Optiv – NightDragon announced a new alliance with Optiv, the cyber advisory and solutions leader, to help bring next-generation technologies from the NightDragon portfolio to the company’s unmatched ecosystem of clients. Through this alliance, NightDragon companies can tap into Optiv’s unmatched ecosystem of people, products, partners and programs to get a fast-track to market.
- Stratascale, an SHI Company – NightDragon announced a strategic partnership with Stratascale, an SHI company, to bring the latest innovations and disruptive technologies in these essential sectors to market to Stratascale customers alongside the company’s leading services and advisory offerings. SHI is unique in the market for its ability to show leadership around innovation, including by launching Stratascale, a dedicated advisory organization to build and implement high value and outcome-based solutions and professional services for customers.
- Orange Cyberdefense – NightDragon announced a partnership with Orange Cyberdefense, a global leader in cybersecurity services, to bring its portfolio’s innovative technologies and services to European customers. Orange Cyberdefense has a global footprint with a European anchorage, including 2,500+ experts across 160 countries and 8,500 customers.
- Prosek – NightDragon announced a partnership with Prosek, a leading independent communications and marketing firm, to support our portfolio in maturing their crisis communications, remediation and response procedures to better prepare them to respond to any incidents that may occur.
- Jacobs – NightDragon announced a strategic alliance with Jacobs to advance cyber and intelligence technology innovation in the interest of commercial and national security. As part of this relationship, NightDragon and Jacobs will collaborate to build, co-invest and take to market a joint cyber, intelligence and digital (CID) ecosystem to bring essential, cutting-edge technologies to customers globally.
- Merlin – NightDragon announced a partnership with Merlin to enhance our portfolio’s ability to go to market and solve the biggest challenges of U.S. public sector customers. Merlin now helps NightDragon portfolio companies tap into public sector go-to-market strategies and work together to deliver innovative CSSP technologies to government customers.
- Coalfire – NightDragon and Coalfire announced a partnership to advance NightDragon’s portfolio company maturity around key cybersecurity and compliance requirements, including FedRAMP. Backed by Coalfire’s expertise, NightDragon companies will be better positioned to work with federal civilian, defense, and state and local agencies as well as commercial industries with compliance and certification requirements.
Drove Impact Around Diversity, Closing the Cyber Talent Gap
Employees are the heart and soul of every organization, and we know our companies need strong and diverse talent to be successful. With that in mind, we launched the following initiatives throughout the year to help our companies attract, hire and retain top and diverse talent, as well as make a difference in closing the global cyber talent gap.
Initiatives include:
- World’s First Cyber Talent Hub – Together with ThriveDX, we announced the world’s first Cyber Talent Hub to unite educators and employers across commercial and government organizations and serve as a comprehensive ecosystem designed to attract, retain, foster and continuously develop cyber talent. Founding partners included Carahsoft, Exclusive Networks, Ingram Micro, Jacobs, Kyndryl, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Mandiant, Marsh, New York University, University of Chicago, University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin.
- Campaign to Close the Cyber Talent Gap – NightDragon and non-profit NextGen Cyber Talent launched a campaign to raise $1 million to help fund one year of community college courses for Bay Area students pursuing careers in cybersecurity. NightDragon led the formation of the coalition of initial donors, including portfolio companies, go-to-market and investment partners.
Held 34+ Events
NDN Community Events: At NightDragon we know our companies are stronger when they stand together. We continue to grow our internal NightDragon Network events to bring together our portfolio companies and have discussions on how to grow their businesses around key functional areas, including executive leadership, sales, human resources, marketing, diversity and more.
NightVision Events: NightDragon continued to grow our NightVision event series, hosting 37+ guests over the course of 2022 for open fireside chats with some of our industry’s most interesting and influential individuals. Guests included Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora, Microsoft Security EVP Charlie Bell and CVP Kelly Bissell, Commander of the Joint Intelligence Operations Center at US CYBERCOMMAND Colonel Candice Frost, former New York Times reporter Nicole Perlroth, Cyderes CEO Robert Herjavec, CISA Director Jen Easterly, NASDAQ CIO Brad Peterson, and many more.
Industry Events: We also hosted industry events, including our first NightDragon Innovation Summit at RSA with more than 200 top cybersecurity leaders and government officials. This event followed our first Innovation Summit last year with Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and builds on our commitment to supporting public private partnership across the industry.
Thought Leadership Through Media
- Axios – Cyber investors on current economic climate
- Wall Street Journal – Cyber M&A Expected to Remain Robust Into 2023
- TechCrunch – 2021 was a record-breaking year for cybersecurity startups
- Protocol – Cybersecurity teams need to fill jobs and improve diversity. They’ll need entry-level roles to get there
- Protocol – Security experts are bracing for major cyberattacks against the West if Russia gets desperate
- Forbes – At RSA Conference, Job Still Key to Cybersecurity Crisis
- Wall Street Journal – VCs, Tech Firms Want to Raise $1 Million for Bay Area Cyber Education
- VentureBeat – Security VC hit nearly $30B in 2021, with startups rapidly going from ‘zero to billions’
