Big50-2017 Week 3: 5 Cool Cybersecurity Startups

After the Equifax breach, the Russian hack into the U.S. election, the Shadow Brokers heist, etc., cybersecurity startups are hot in 2017. Then again, when are they not?

In week 3 of the Big50-2017 reveal, we feature 5 cool cybersecurity startups.

You’ve already seen such security startups as PointPredictive and Deep Instinct in previous weeks, and you will see many more as we move forward. Security is such a massive problem that we expect it to represent a disproportionate number of startups in this competition for years to come.

This week’s batch of cybersecurity startups are developing everything from a cloud-based security “isolation platform” to “Continuous Security as-a-Service” to anti-phishing tools to a Cloud Access Security Broker service.

How these 5 cybersecurity startups made it into the Big50-2017

To recap, the Big50-2017 competition started with more than 160 startups.

Through three rounds of challenges, the Startup50 team whittled that down to the 55 startups we are featuring in the Big50-2017. (Yes, there are 55 startups in the Big50. You got a problem with that?)

First, startups had to pass the fundamentals test. Have they raised sufficient have funding, attracted a solid team, developed a viable business idea that tackles a real-world problem? Do they have on-the-record customers, are they targeting a viable market niche, and have they launched an MVP that’s moved the needle?

Next, if the fundamentals were in order, startups had to fight their way through the Online Voting and Social Media challenge.

Those still standing, then had to face the Content Challenge. Startups pitched the Startup50 team their best story ideas for a forthcoming podcast.

The 55 startups featured in the Big50-2017 startups excelled in each of those three challenges.

Come back in fifteen minutes or so, and you’ll see our first featured cybersecurity startup of the week, a startup that has raised $267 million in VC funding to develop an “adaptive security” platform. Stay tuned. . .