Axeleo Capital (AXC) publishes the fourth edition of its “Cybersecurity Index”, a quarterly review of the European Cybersecurity ecosystem that monitors the pace of investments and innovation in the sector.

Quantitative overview

This quarter, the European cybersecurity sector remained quite active. Even if the total amount of funds raised slightly decreased from 408M€ to 354M€, the number deals increased by 17% revealing a larger amount of smaller rounds.

France activity at its highest ?

With 11 deals in the last 3 months, France stands on the first step of the podium ahead of United-Kingdom (10 deals) and Germany (6 deals). The French cybersecurity startups successfully  raised 66.8M€ with Sekoia.io leading the group in an impressive 35M€ Series A displaying their ambition to become the leader in cyber detection and response in Europe. CyberVadis also raised 7M€ in Series A to keep developing its cyber scoring platform and expand internationally.

The Seed ecosystem was particularly active this quarter in France (9 deals) in many sectors : Cyber Insurance (Bastion Technologies - 2.5M€), Threat & Actor Intelligence (Filigran - 5M€), Application Security (Escape - 3.6M€).

Key figures for Q1

1. Early-stage is booming all over Europe

As the number of growth rounds (Series A to E) dropped from 15 to 9 compared to last quarter, the number of early-stage ones (Pre-seed and Seed) increased from 20 to 37 representing 80% of the total number of deals. As the level of awareness is rising among companies, many startups are being created to address the increasing demand in that sector.

1. UK takes the pole

UK cybersecurity ecosystem remains very active in Q2, dominating Europe in terms of round size, reaching an impressive €143M amount distributed among 10 deals. This can mainly be explained by Quantexa’s Series E of €118M (toping a $1.8bn valuation at the same time) showing that Fraud & Financial Crime protection still represent a major challenge for companies nowadays and that the market is consolidating.

1. Most active sectors in Q2

The most active sector this quarter is Identity & Access Management representing 18% of the deals as well in Seed (NineID or Outdid), Series A (Veridas - €15M) and even Series B round (Fourthline - €50M). Following previous quarters trend, Threat & Actor Intelligence (14%), Awareness (14%) and Application security (12%) sectors remain very active.

Methodology:

The Cybersecurity Index is based on data from Axeleo Capital's analysis as well as databases, such as Crunchbase in particular. These data sources mainly gather information on deals and rounds that have been publicly disclosed - many other raises are taking place, but without announcements or communications on amounts (thus difficult to track). The analysis is limited to companies headquartered in Europe, and with a value proposition focused on Cybersecurity. As far as recorded fundraising is concerned, this refers to equity venture capital fundraising only (i.e. excluding debt fundraising, subsidies and aid other than equity).

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About Axeleo Capital:

Axeleo Capital 2 is a €70 million venture capital fund dedicated to B2B Tech start-ups, including cybersecurity, across Europe. Axeleo Capital is a venture capital firm active on the European technology scene and backed by a large pool of entrepreneur-investors. The fund offers startup founders a unique support framework that combines equity investment, operational and strategic coaching and an active ecosystem of over 100 high-level partners and mentors. Its Cybersecurity investments include Seedata, Trustpair, Citalid, Mantra, Yogosha (exit) and Alsid (exit).

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