JUNE 2022ENTERPRISE SECURITY| | 19Last year was a record-breaking year for VC funding in cybersecurity; at nearly $30 billion, 2021 more than doubled funding compared to 2020, and beat out the two previous years­combined.Before the recent geopolitical tumult, the war in Ukraine, and, as of writing in early Q2, expected interest rate hikes, I'd have confidently bet that 2022 funding figures would handily beat 2021. Regardless, the sector continues to grow­it will be interesting to see what impact the current political environment has on Russian cybercrime and ransomware payments.At Wing Venture Capital, where I'm a partner, I focus on seed and early stage startups in the security space, along with AI/ML, data, PLG, and next generation infrastructure. Every year, we release, in partnership with Nasdaq, a list of the most promising enterprise tech startups, organized by stage, in the world. It's called the Enterprise Tech 30, or ET30 for short, and it recognizes the best of the best: the companies with the most potential to meaningfully impact how enterprises work.To do it, we survey nearly 100 leading venture capitalists, 30 corporate development teams, and keep the voting fair: they aren't allowed to stack the votes in favor of their portfolio companies, and the final tally takes other, objective data gathered by our research team into consideration.It came as no surprise that security-focused startups had a strong presence across every section of the list, from the earliest stage newbies to the $1 billion+ veterans on the list.They had the strongest presence, though, in the early- and mid-stage categories; it makes sense, given how quickly the sector is growing. Of those 20 companies, 25 percent were in the security space.LET'S LOOK AT EACH, FROM SMALLEST TO BIGGEST.Tailscale (Founded 2019; 31 employees; tailscale.com)What they do: Tailscale is a VPN service that makes the devices and applications you own accessible anywhere in the world. It enables encrypted point-to-point connections using the open source WireGuard protocol, which means only devices on your private network can communicate with each other.Why you should care: Unlike traditional VPNs that tunnel network traffic through a central gateway server, Tailscale creates a peer-to-peer mesh network called a tailnet. This approach avoids centralization where possible and reduces THESE FIVE BEST-OF-THE-BEST SECURITY STARTUPS WILL CHANGE HOW YOU WORK IN 2022­AND BEYONDBy Jake Flomenberg, Partner, Wing Venture CapitalCXO INSIGHTS
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