ECSO’s latest virtual discussion based on the initiative “Decoding European Cybersecurity Market Trends” took place on 8 February 2024. Guest speakers Augustin Blanchard and Marco Riccardi shared perspectives on investment decline, their distribution across Europe, and the role of external players. Mr. Blanchard emphasized the importance of investing in human factor in cybersecurity, while Mr. Riccardi highlighted geopolitical and technological factors. This series of meetings showcases ECSO’s commitment to providing market insights and knowledge to its members.
On 8 February 2024 ECSO had the pleasure of hosting a virtual discussion as part of our “Decoding European Cybersecurity Market Trends” initiative. Many of our esteemed members assisted to the presentation of the outcomes of the 2023 market analysis made by ECSO, along with projections on 2024. Two guest speakers from our community dedicated their expertise to the discussion: Augustin Blanchard, Executive Director of Tikehau Capital, and Marco Riccardi, CEO and Founder of QuoIntelligence.
Our conversation opened on the topic that 2023 has been a year marked by a 38% decrease in private investments in the European cybersecurity sector. Another factor that was mentioned is the distribution of private investments around Europe: in terms of capital invested and rounds of financing, we found the United Kingdom to be the leading country, followed by France and Germany. The Netherlands, Estonia, Czechia and Lithuania also made the Top 10 in 2023, demonstrating their lively cybersecurity investment markets.
We observed a considerable investment and M&A activity by external players in the European cybersecurity market. In fact, 5 out of 10 of the biggest investors are from the US, and as much as 23% of all M&As in Europe have a non-European company as the acquirer. American-based companies/investors are the second most active acquirers in Europe, beaten only by UK-based ones.
According to Augustin Blanchard, European companies can expect a rebound in 2024 that will award consistently growing companies, rather than unstable ones. On another note, as cybersecurity is getting more mainstream, it is also becoming more mature. Consequently, in Blanchard’s words, investments should be focused on the advancement of Human Factor – i.e. cyber insurance, cyber awareness. There’s a growing need of technology enablers rather than high-tech, disruptive solutions. Closing his contribution, he reiterated on the importance that investors are giving to consolidation, having mergers between equal companies to create European independent platforms.
Marco Riccardi complemented this view with perspectives for 2024 encompassing geopolitics, economy, governance and technology, depicting a tough scenario for the concerns around many interconnected factors. Ongoing conflicts, elections around the world, growing interest rates, higher numbers of cyber-attacks expected, stricter regulations and sanctions and, ultimately, the propelling power of artificial intelligence, both a potential weapon and shielding tool in future cyber conflicts. In this rapidly changing context cybersecurity companies should adopt a proactive approach, implying constant scenario monitoring and a cooperative mindset, as supply chains will be a major target for cyber threats.
At ECSO we strive to empower our Members by providing insightful and informative sessions that benefit the European cybersecurity sector as a whole. We thank again the numerous participants, and we invite everyone to stay updated on our future initiatives!
If you wish to take part in events like this and benefit from many more initiatives, we invite you to consider ECSO’s membership and enjoy the fullest privileges that ECSO can offer.
About ECSO’s “Decoding European Cybersecurity Market Trends” initiative:
The “Decoding European Cybersecurity Market Trends” sessions are a series of events organised throughout the year, that aim to capture and disseminate the biggest cybersecurity trends in private investment and M&As to ECSO members, as well as invite experts to share insights on the market.
In addition to this, ECSO publishes a monthly European Cybermarket report, a quarterly market snapshot and a yearly report, providing an overview of cybersecurity-related funding, M&As, and new investment funds created during a specific month in the European cybersecurity market.
