Report: Most investment in DC-area cybersecurity startups goes to Maryland, Virginia

Washington, D.C.–based cybersecurity investment firm Strategic Cyber Ventures released its first annual report on The State of 2018 Cybersecurity Investing that includes some key findings about the DMV.

When pulling together these findings, the firm said it was “somewhat surprised by how disproportionate funding was towards Virginia and Maryland.” Strategic Cyber Ventures reported that it expected Maryland and Virginia to command most of the region’s investment, but only $80 million of nearly $1 billion in funding went to D.C. venture-backed startups over in the last four year period that it gathered data on.

The cybersecurity firm reported that Virtru drove the only funding of cybersecurity investment into D.C. proper last year. In June 2018, the data protection startup raised $37.5 million in Series B funding led by San Francisco–based  Iconiq Capital with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates,Samsung NEXT, Soros Capital, Blue Delta and Thyra Global. Virtru came in at No. 6 on the 2016 “Upstart 25,” a list of promising startups from CNBC. The email encryption startup also raised a $29 million Series A in August 2016.

Here’s a look at the DMV’s cybersecurity venture capital investment since 2014.

Source: Strategic Cyber Ventures.