From: Wall Street Journal/CIO Journal

Michael Hickins

Good morning. Cybersecurity is not high on the list of technologies getting funding from the venture capital community, despite the growing importance of cybersecurity on the national agenda.

An analysis of VC deals shows just 39 venture capital investments in security firms during the first half of 2013, a fraction of the 251 VC investments in software. Andy Vitus, a partner with Scale Venture Partners, in Foster City, Calif., tells CIO Journal that investors believe it’s too soon. “There is a new crop of security companies coming up, mostly focused on mobile security and devices. The question on the investment side is whether enterprises will buy mobile security from the old guard and port it to mobile, or whether there is a need for a whole new set of companies,” he said. Peter Levine, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, says the technological approach to solving security problems is still in flux, and that while startups are driving that innovation, only a few are compelling enough to invest in from a technological or business point of view.