The Most Active Cybersecurity VCs and Growth Equity Funds (2026)

The most active cybersecurity VCs in 2026 are a small set of firms writing checks at a pace nobody else in the category matches. By verified deal count, the specialist funds lead: Ballistic Ventures made 15 investments in 2025, SYN Ventures 13, and Glilot Capital 12. Among generalists, Accel ran its most active year on record with 142 investments across all sectors. On the growth side, Insight Partners carries 80-plus lifetime cyber deals. Total cybersecurity startup funding in 2025 lands somewhere between $14B and $25.1B depending on the tracker, and which number you believe depends entirely on how you count.

A cybersecurity VC is an investor that puts equity into security startups, from a founder's first seed round through the late growth rounds before an exit. The field splits three ways: specialist funds that do nothing but cyber, generalist firms with a heavy cyber book, and growth-equity shops that come in late with nine-figure checks. Each tier plays a different part, and the same company often passes through all three on its way out.

I read this the way I read any market, from an operator's seat, because I run growth for MSPs and cyber firms and spend my time watching where the capital actually lands rather than where the press releases say it does. This is the money side of the same map I laid out in the cybersecurity market map, and it pairs with a companion piece on the private equity firms buying cyber that publishes alongside it. VCs fund the companies. PE buys them. Here is who funds them, sourced and dated, with one company traced through every tier to show how the flow works.

The Wiz spine: one company through three investor tiers

The cleanest way to understand how cyber capital flows is to follow a single company from its seed round to its exit. Wiz is the obvious case, because Google closed its $32 billion acquisition of the cloud-security firm in March 2026, and its cap table reads like a tour of every tier in this article.

It started with a specialist. In 2020, Cyberstarts co-led Wiz's roughly $20 million seed round with Sequoia. Cyberstarts wrote an early seed check that came back a couple of hundred times over at the Google close. Sequoia, a generalist, led the roughly $20 million seed and held roughly a 10 percent stake worth about $3 billion at close, around 25 times its money.

Then the growth rounds came, and the generalist megafunds piled in: Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock and Lightspeed all took positions as Wiz's rounds stacked up on the way to the eventual $32 billion exit. Index built a stake near 12 percent that returned roughly $3.8 billion. On the pure growth side, Insight Partners backed the company from its Series A onward. Specialist seed, generalist growth, dedicated growth equity, then a strategic exit at $32 billion. That is the whole system in one cap table, and it is the frame for the rest of this piece.

Tier 1: the cybersecurity specialist funds

Specialists do one thing. They raise cyber-only capital, staff with former security founders, and take the earliest bets before a company has revenue. When a specialist writes your seed check you are also buying its network of CISOs and design partners, often worth more than the money. These are the firms that show up first in almost every breakout, Wiz included.

Cyberstarts

The largest specialist by capital. Cyberstarts has raised more than $1.4 billion across seven funds, including over $700 million in 2025 alone through a $380 million second Opportunity Fund plus a $300 million employee liquidity vehicle. Beyond the Wiz seed, its portfolio includes Island (around $5 billion), Cyera, which it co-created and which later hit $12 billion, and Fireblocks at $8 billion. Tel Aviv and New York. Its Opportunity Fund exists so a seed specialist can keep buying into its own winners as they scale, instead of handing the later upside to the generalists.

Team8

A venture-creation firm rather than a straight investor. Team8 co-builds companies from scratch alongside its founders, and it holds more than $1 billion in assets under management after a $500 million raise across new funds in 2024 and 2025. Its output includes Dig Security and Talon, both acquired by Palo Alto Networks, plus Cyera, which it co-founded. It reported launching 11 new companies and follow-ons across roughly 40 portfolio companies in six months, a build rate no ordinary seed fund matches.

YL Ventures

An Israel-focused seed specialist with $800 million in assets under management across five funds. Its Fund V closed at $400 million in 2022, billed as the largest seed fund ever raised for cybersecurity, on a track record of 69 lifetime investments. YL sold its stake in Axonius for $270 million in 2021, and saw Aim Security acquired by Cato Networks in 2025. It backs Israeli founders at seed and Series A.

Ballistic Ventures

The most active specialist by 2025 deal count, with 15 investments in a single year. Ballistic has raised $660 million across two funds, the second a $360 million oversubscribed vehicle that closed in March 2024. Its average check runs $25.6 million at Series A and $15.4 million at seed, large for a specialist. Portfolio names include ArmorCode, Pangea and Veza, and it held Talon before the Palo Alto acquisition.

SYN Ventures

Second on the 2025 activity list with 13 deals, and 38 investments over five years. SYN launched what it called the largest dedicated cybersecurity seed fund in US history, a $75 million-plus vehicle in October 2023, on top of a debut fund and a later $300 million raise, roughly $900 million cited across its funds. West Palm Beach. Portfolio includes SynSaber, Terra Security, Tuskira and Reveal Security.

Ten Eleven Ventures

A cyber-dedicated firm across five funds with 61 lifetime investments, seven of them unicorns, and 21 acquisitions in its track record, including Barracuda, Ping Identity and Aura. In 2025 it backed Vulncheck, Fleet and Guardare, and saw Vulcan Cyber acquired in January. Ten Eleven writes checks from $1 million to $10 million across seed, Series A and beyond.

Forgepoint Capital

More than $1 billion in assets under management with its third fund deploying, and a portfolio of dozens of companies. Forgepoint counts three unicorns, Cyberhaven, Huntress and Interos, and two IPOs. Recent activity includes RapidFort in February 2026, Nudge Security's Series A in November 2025, and leading a $20 million round in Tadaweb. It plays comfortably from seed through growth in the same company.

Glilot Capital Partners

Third on the 2025 activity list with 12 investments, and $1.3 billion raised in total. Glilot crossed $1 billion in assets under management after a $500 million close in September 2025. Its average seed check runs $6.81 million and its Series A average $19.9 million. The track record includes At-Bay, Cider (acquired by Palo Alto), CyberX (Microsoft), IntSights (Rapid7), plus current bets Noma Security and Sweet Security. Israel.

NightDragon

The growth-stage specialist, run by Dave DeWalt, former CEO of McAfee and FireEye. NightDragon manages about $1.2 billion, a $750 million first growth fund from 2021 plus a $435 million second, investing across cyber, safety, security and privacy. In 2025 it put $85 million into Dataminr alongside HSBC and joined Classiq's $110 million Series C. Its edge is the operator brand: DeWalt's name opens enterprise doors that a pure financial investor cannot.

Merlin Ventures

The youngest fund on the list, with an inaugural $75 million-plus vehicle that closed oversubscribed in June 2025, Israel-focused, on 16 lifetime investments through prior vehicles. Those earlier vehicles exited Talon and Dig to Palo Alto, InfoSec Global to Keyfactor, and Veriti to Check Point. The notable move: Merlin led Torq's $140 million Series D at a $1.2 billion valuation in January 2026, a young fund leading a growth round, which tells you the founder relationships run deeper than the fund size suggests.

DataTribe

The smallest and most distinctive, at roughly $200 million total with a third fund of $41 million in 2025. DataTribe commercializes technology built by US-government and NSA-adjacent alumni, writing $2 million to $3 million seed checks for stakes near 25 percent, across 23 lifetime investments. It seeded Dragos, last valued at $1.7 billion. This is the deep-tech, national-security corner of cyber seed, and almost nobody else works it.

Tier 2: the generalists most active in cyber

The generalists' edge is fund size: they can lead a Series A and keep following on round after round without running out of capital, which is why they end up in the biggest deals. When a security company breaks out, these are the firms that lead the growth rounds and take the stakes that turn into billions, as Wiz showed. They are also the buyers behind much of the wider cyber market map.

Accel

The most active generalist in the category. Accel made 142 investments in 2025, its most active year ever, backed by a $4 billion-plus Leaders Fund V and a $650 million sidecar. It carries 43-plus cyber investments dating to the 1990s and nine cyber IPOs. Recent cyber moves include co-leading Cyera's $400 million Series F in January 2026, ConductorOne's $79 million Series B, and Aura's $140 million Series G.

Sequoia Capital

The generalist with the best single cyber outcome of the decade. Sequoia runs an evergreen main fund near $20 billion, and its Wiz stake alone returned about $3 billion. It led the Wiz seed with Cyberstarts and rode the position to the Google exit, proof that a generalist writing the right early check can beat the specialists.

Lightspeed Venture Partners

Lightspeed closed more than $9 billion in new funds in December 2025, the largest raise in its 25-year history, and it takes cyber seriously enough to publish an annual Cyber60 CISO survey (88 percent of CISOs expect budget increases, 100 percent are allocating AI budget). Its portfolio spans Axonius, BlinkOps, Cato Networks, CyCognito and Cyera, and it co-invested in Chainguard's $356 million Series D in 2025.

Index Ventures

Index announced $2.3 billion in new funds in July 2024, split between an $800 million venture fund and a $1.5 billion growth fund, plus a $300 million seed vehicle. Its Wiz stake returned roughly $3.8 billion. In 2026 it co-led Frame Security's $50 million round with Team8, a specialist-generalist pairing that is becoming the standard structure for the best cyber deals.

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)

a16z raised $15 billion across new funds in January 2026, its largest haul ever. Its cyber anchors are Wiz, valued at $12 billion before the acquisition, and Abnormal Security at $5.1 billion. In 2025 it joined Opal's $70 million Series C alongside Bessemer. The fund size lets a16z keep writing into a winner until the exit.

Greylock Partners

Smaller than the megafunds, and it plays a sharper game because of it. Greylock seeded Abnormal AI in 2018, a position that reached a $5.1 billion valuation by its 2024 Series D. In 2025 and 2026 it led Cogent Security's $11 million seed, founded by Abnormal alumni, and made a $42 million bet with Bain on AI agents for cyber in February 2026. Its book includes Palo Alto, Okta, Cato, Cribl, Rubrik, Dazz, Apiiro and Censys.

Bessemer Venture Partners

Bessemer made 105 investments in 2025 firmwide against roughly $18.8 billion in assets under management, with 43-plus cyber investments and nine cyber IPOs behind it. Recent activity includes Astrix exiting to Cisco in May 2026 and the Opal Series C with a16z. Worth a mention on the way out: GV made only one clear cyber deal in the period, MokN's $15 million Series A in May 2026, which is why it sits as a footnote rather than a profile.

Tier 3: the growth equity funds, and the honest cut

Growth equity comes in last and largest. These firms write the nine-figure checks that carry a company from breakout to exit, avoiding the technology risk specialists live on. The tier decides which cyber companies get the capital to stay independent rather than sell early to a private equity buyer. It also matters to name the firms that talk about cyber but do not deploy, because a founder chasing the wrong logo wastes a quarter.

Insight Partners

The most active growth investor in cyber, full stop, with 80-plus lifetime cyber investments. Insight closed Fund XIII at $12.5 billion in January 2025 against regulatory assets north of $90 billion. It backed Wiz from the Series A onward and sold Recorded Future to Mastercard for $2.65 billion in September 2024. In 2025 it made 64 new investments across all sectors and logged 25-plus exits.

Coatue Management

A crossover fund with $73.2 billion in discretionary assets that led Island's $250 million Series E in March 2025 at a $4.8 billion valuation, up from $2.9 billion just eleven months earlier. Coatue plays the late, momentum-driven rounds, and re-rating a company inside a year is the behavior that pushes cyber valuations up fast.

ICONIQ Growth

ICONIQ closed Fund VII at $5.75 billion in July 2024, up 42 percent over its prior fund, and deployed $4.8 billion across 48 companies in 2025. Its cyber-specific book is thinner than the pure specialists, so treat it as a platform with cyber positions rather than a dedicated cyber investor, but when it takes a position, it takes a large one.

Georgian

Georgian runs $5.9 billion in assets and shows the clearest single-company escalation in the tier. It first backed Cyera through a $30 million position in its Fund VI in 2024, co-led a $400 million round at a $6 billion valuation in 2025, then rode the position into Cyera's $12 billion Series G in mid-2026. Doubling down round over round on conviction is the pattern that funds a category winner.

Sapphire Ventures

Sapphire holds $10 billion to $11 billion in assets and a cyber track record that runs through Cyera, Huntress, Netskope, Cohesity and Auth0. Netskope hit the public markets with a NASDAQ IPO in September 2025, the kind of exit that recycles growth-equity dollars into the next cohort.

The cut: Tiger, Thrive, Altimeter

Three names appear on every generic list of cyber growth investors and do not belong there on the current evidence. Tiger Global, Thrive Capital and Altimeter each show no verified cyber deal in 2025 or 2026. They may write a check tomorrow, and they have the capital to do it, but a founder building a target list off a 2021-era article will waste time chasing firms that are not deploying into security right now. The active growth-equity set is Insight, Coatue, Georgian, ICONIQ and Sapphire.

The Israel concentration and the venture-creation model

Two countries own this market. The United States and Israel together took 91 percent of global cyber VC dollars in 2025 and 68 percent of the deals. US funding hit $18.5 billion, up 66 percent, and Israel hit $2.5 billion, up 200 percent to an all-time high, while all of Europe managed $1.33 billion. I map the regional pictures separately: the UK, continental Europe and the Middle East. If you are raising for a cyber company and you are not in one of those two ecosystems, you are fishing in a smaller pond than the totals suggest.

The Israeli edge comes from a specific place. Roughly half of the founders behind the last decade's $100 million-plus cyber exits served in Unit 8200, the Israeli military's signals-intelligence corps, and startups founded by 8200 alumni carry an average acquisition value around $317 million. The unit functions as a founder factory: technical training, real adversarial experience, and a tight alumni network that funds and hires its own.

That pipeline is what makes the venture-creation model work. Cyberstarts and Team8 do not wait for a founder with a deck. They spot a problem, recruit a team out of the 8200 network, and build the company from day one, which is how Cyera got created inside two firms at once. A US generalist cannot easily copy that, and it explains why the specialist tier here skews so heavily Israeli.

Why the funding totals disagree, and the AI-security paradox

Every article about cyber funding quotes a 2025 total, and almost none explain why the totals do not match. There are three credible figures, and the gap between them is a methodology story, not an error.

Pinpoint Search Group counted $13.97 billion across 392 rounds, up 47 percent from $9.5 billion in 2024, and it tracks pure-play cybersecurity vendors only. Crunchbase reported $18 billion, up 26 percent to a three-year high, using its broader security and privacy categories. Return on Security logged the widest number, $25.1 billion across 743 deals, up 59 percent from $15.8 billion, with an average deal of $40.9 million. Same market, three definitions of what counts as a cyber company, roughly $11 billion of spread. When someone quotes you a cyber funding total, the first question is whose methodology, because the answer moves the number by 80 percent.

One thing all three agree on is concentration. Return on Security counted 48 rounds of $100 million or more, totaling $16.4 billion, which is 65 percent of the year's dollars in 8 percent of the deals. The megafunds are writing a few enormous checks into presumed winners, not spreading capital thin.

Now the paradox worth sitting with. The labeled "AI security" category raised just $661 million in 2025, about 2.6 percent of the year's funding, outside the top ten subcategories even after 75 percent growth. Identity and access management alone raised $2.75 billion, four times that. So AI security is a rounding error? No. AI-native companies made up more than half of all cyber VC deals by late 2025, and AI security closed more individual deals, 144, than any other subcategory. The label is small because AI is not a category, it is a layer running through every category. Founders pitching "AI security" as a vertical are miscounting the market: the money goes to AI-native companies solving old problems, not to a standalone AI-security aisle.

What it means if you are raising

The practical read for a founder is that the tier you target should match your stage, and the check sizes are knowable. At seed, cyber rounds run a median of $4 million to $5.7 million, though the active specialists write larger: Ballistic averages $15.4 million at seed and Glilot $6.81 million. Series A lands in a wide band, roughly $15 million to $50 million, with Ballistic averaging $25.6 million and Glilot $19.9 million. Growth rounds start at $100 million and run to the nine-figure megarounds the generalists and growth-equity funds lead.

The AI-native premium is real and worth pricing in. AI-native security startups took 35 percent of all cyber seed capital in 2025, up from 12 percent in 2024, and their rounds run about 1.3 times larger with valuations more than 40 percent higher than comparable non-AI startups. If your company is genuinely AI-native rather than AI-labeled, that premium is available to you. If it is AI-labeled marketing over a conventional product, investors at this stage can tell, and the premium evaporates.

The same "where did the money go" question runs through the adjacent markets I cover: where venture capital funded MSP software, and the unit economics of the AI-driven SOC a lot of this capital is chasing. If you are choosing security tools rather than funding them, the MSP tool stack maps the products these firms back. The flows decide which vendors survive to sell you something in three years.

Two companion pieces to this list: why cyber's best VCs are former operators, and a graded guide to what these investors publish.

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