Chinese tech companies are increasingly strengthening their presence the security business, challenging the historical American dominance.
According to GlobalData’s list of top five venture capital (VC) funded security technology companies the US and China security technology companies shared honours in the list.
However, China-based Yitu Technology emerged as the leader and attracted largest VC funding in 2018. While the three US-based companies among the top-five raised a total of US$489 million, the two Chinese companies collectively raised US$479 million during the year.
Aurojyoti Bose, Financial Deals Analyst at GlobalData, said: “Within security technologies, cybersecurity has always remained centre stage and companies working in the space will continue generating investors’ interest. This is evident in the top companies list, wherein four out of the top five VC funded security technology companies are active in cybersecurity space.”
Yitu Technology, which offers smart identity and access management security solutions leveraging computer vision algorithms, raised U$300m, the highest VC funding among companies operating in security technology space.
360 Enterprise Security Group was the other Chinese company that made to the top five list in 2018. The company is active in the field of cybersecurity and network security.
American security tech firms, CrowdStrike, Netskope and Cylance occupied second, fourth and fifth positions with total VC funding of $200 million, $169 million and $120 million, respectively in 2018. All the three companies work in the cybersecurity space.
Bose said: “With more and more smart devices being connected through Internet of Things, robust cybersecurity systems have become pivotal for businesses more than ever before. The demand for cybersecurity is also driven by introduction of tighter regulations (such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in European Union) with provision of heavy fines, compelling organizations to take adequate measure to ensure security.”
