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Cybersecurity tends to be one of the more resilient sectors for startup funding, as customers know it’s cheaper in the long run to pay for it than go without. Even so, investment to the space reliably fluctuates from quarter to quarter, driven largely by the volume of jumbo rounds.

This past quarter, funding to security- and privacy-focused startups dipped slightly on a sequential basis, but remained well above year-ago levels. Overall, investors put $4.9 billion into global companies in the space in Q1, per SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ , a comparatively solid performance relative to recent quarters, as charted below.

Round counts also held steady at just under 200 1, per SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ data. Of those, 13 were financings of $100 million or more.

Biggest funding recipients

The largest funding recipient in Q1 was , a consumer-focused privacy startup that closed on $375 million in Series B funding.

Two other companies raised $250 million Series B financings: , a provider of AI-enabled cybersecurity services, and , a cloud security provider.

For a broader view of large funding recipients, below we put together a list of 10 of the largest Q1 cybersecurity rounds.

AI is dominant trend

Not surprisingly, a majority of cybersecurity-related funding went to companies that are also in SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ AI-related categories. This coincided with a record quarter for AI-related funding overall, with the category capturing 80% of all global funding in Q1.

Acquirers were also attuned to AI. This included the quarter’s largest acquisition, ’s purchase of identity access management startup for a reported $740 million. Another big AI-related deal was ’ acquisition of agentic endpoint security provider for a reported $400 million.

IPO activity, meanwhile, was quiet, with no major cybersecurity-related offerings in Q1, per SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ data.

Looking ahead

We expect to see AI-driven investment continue to be a dominant theme for cybersecurity. And while Q2 has not yet brought us a cybersecurity megaround, the default assumption is this is only a matter of time.

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• North America Q1 Funding Surges Across Stages To Record Level

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