Reflecting on 2020: Cybersecurity Black Unicorns of The Year – Cyber Defense Magazine

As we begin to wind-down 2020, we would like you to make sure you did not miss our annual Black Unicorn Report.  You’ll see some of the most innovative and skyrocketing cybersecurity companies in the industry, with past and present judges including Roger Herjavec, David DeWalt, Bob Ackerman and Gary Miliefsky.

In the venture capital industry, a unicorn refers to any tech startup company that reaches a $1 billion-dollar market value as determined by private or public investment.

The term was originally coined in 2013 by venture capitalist Aileen Lee, choosing the mythical animal to represent the statistical rarity of such successful ventures. Last year, CB Insights reported that the odds of becoming a unicorn — a company valued at $1 billion or more — was less than 1% for companies that had raised venture capital. In 2018, there were 47 tech companies in the US to reach this unicorn status, according to data provided by PitchBook.

In the cybersecurity industry, in 2019, Gary S. Miliefsky coined the term black unicorn as a cybersecurity company that has the potential to reach a $1 billion-dollar market value as determined by private or public investment.

The black unicorn awards are designed to help showcase companies with this kind of potential. Ultimately, the judging in our awards is tough and it’s still up to those notable mentions, finalists and the winners to execute a flawless business model to reach this potential. It takes innovation, dedication, passion – the right team and the right cyber security solution, harmoniously executed to become a unicorn.

Our mission is to uncover future Black Unicorns and based upon the hard work of our judges and the entrants in our awards program, we think we’ve found them.

During BlackHat USA 2020, we’ve decided not only to cover and showcase Black Unicorn winners and finalists but also smaller companies in our Top 100 Cybersecurity Startups list of winners culled from over 3200 cybersecurity companies around the world.  These are earlier stage, with either their first or second round of funding, a new product or just getting started at revenues – but make no mistake – they are absolutely worthy of your attention and deployment considerations.  Innovators who are early may also change the landscape and one day take significant market share, like the Black Unicorns.

In addition, we’re covering the Top 100 CISOs from around the globe and the Top 100 Women in Cybersecurity.  Please grab your copy of the Black Unicorn report and let these companies know where you found them.