7 cybersecurity startups to bet your career on in 2019

Kolide founders 2

Cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities can break a company's software — not to mention its reputation.

Whether it's a ransomware attack, the targeted social media hijacking of celebrities and corporate executives, or just a good-old-fashioned computer virus, it's no secret that the rate of cybersecurity attacks are only going to increase.

Enter a growing roster of cybersecurity startups, aiming to help companies fight these threats and secure their digital perimeters. Investors have identified cybersecurity as one of the biggest trends to watch, making a move into the field potentially a good career decision.

We looked at a variety of factors when selecting this list including the experience of leaders and founders, the reputations of investors and the amount of funding raised along with valuations, based on data from online finance database Pitchbook, the keeper of such records. We also selected startups at a variety of stages from just starting out to well-established.

Here are the seven cybersecurity startups to bet your career on in 2019:

BigID: Protecting sensitive data

Valuation: $26.06 million
Total raised to date: $46.16 million
Year founded: 2015
HQ: New York

What it does: BigID offers a way for companies to find and identify their most sensitive data — helping its customers both meet privacy regulation requirements, while also giving a tool to assess the damages in the event of a breach.

Why it's hot: Data protection and privacy tools became even hotter Europe introduced its GDPR privacy regulations in May 2018. The resulting helped the company raise $30 million this year from investors like Scale Venture Partners and the investment arms of Comcast and SAP. BigID Founder and CEO Dimitri Sirota also sold his previous security startup to CA in 2013.

Kolide: a unique way to protect Macs and PCs from hackers

Valuation: $32 million
Total raised to date: $9.6 million
Year founded: 2016
HQ: Somerville, MA

What it does: Kolide is a cloud service that analyzes a company's Macs and PCs to find problems with devices — everything from security issues to repair needs — and suggests fixes.

Why it's hot: This startup was launched by the creators of a popular open source project called osquery developed inside Facebook. It helps protect Macs, Windows and Linux computers from hackers.

Snyk: Hunting through your software for threats

Valuation: $100 million
Total raised to date: $32.04 million
Year founded: 2015
HQ: London

What it does: Snyk automates the process of finding and fixing vulnerabilities in open source software. In other words, it will continuously keep finding and fixing security issues in the open source code that powers much of the world's underlying computing infrastructure.

Why it's hot: This year, Snyk raised $22 million at a $100 million valuation. With open source software only getting more popular with developers, Snyk might be on to a big market.

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