Cybersecurity investor Ballistic Ventures seeks $300M for new fund

November 17, 2023 ndowd

Ballistic Ventures, a venture capital firm dedicated to funding and incubating cybersecurity startups, is looking to raise as much as $300 million for a new fund, according to a regulatory filing.

The San Francisco-based VC firm Wednesday filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $300 million for its second fund — over a year after launching its first fund of the same amount in May 2022.

Ballistic spokesperson Michelle Kincaid declined to comment on the filing when reached by TechCrunch.

Aimed at early-stage cybersecurity and cyber-related startups, Ballistic Ventures is co-founded by Kleiner Perkins’ general partner Ted Schlein, along with Barmak Meftah, Jake Seid and Roger Thornton as the three other general partners, and Mandiant founder Kevin Mandia as its strategic partner. The VC firm also has Derek Smith as a strategic advisor and Agnes So as the firm’s finance and operations chief.

So far, Ballistic has backed a dozen startups, per the details available on the firm’s website. Ballistic says its founded, operated and funded over 90 cybersecurity firms. To date, the company has invested in AuthMind, Oligo, and Nudge Security, among others. The firm also recently appointed former U.S. National Cyber Director Chris Inglis and U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA former chief of staff Kiersten Todt as advisors.

Investment in cybersecurity to date this year has been far below the record highs of previous years.

Investment in cybersecurity in 2023 to date has been far below the record highs of previous years. Venture funding for cybersecurity startups worldwide dropped over 14% to $2.4 billion in the third-quarter of 2023 from $2.8 billion in the same quarter last year, according to Pitchbook data shared with TechCrunch.

The number of deals done during the most recent quarter also decreased from 248 to 198.

Nonetheless, as the digital economy expands globally, cyberattacks and online crimes have become more prevalent. Investors are also optimistic about growth in cybersecurity startups and investments with predominant advancements in generative AI and cloud deployments.