The broken investment chain of the European cybersecurity market - Roundtable discussion

Cybersecurity represents a complex and fragmented market in Europe, suffering from the funding gap of more than €4 billion in 2020, if compared with the United States (US). The lack of specialised growth capital fund, strategic buyers as well as international marketing and business skills make Europe lag behind the US, Israel and China in this strategic sector. This forces European cybersecurity champions to leave European market and scaleup overseas.
Given this operating context, this panel discussion aims to gather international investors and cybersecurity experts to discuss the strategies to tackle the lack of sufficient and specialised growth capital beyond the seed and A-rounds (>10M€) in Europe, as well as hot to ensure a sustainable path to scale up and exit/IPO European cybersecurity companies in Europe instead of accessing the US market. The broken investment chain in Europe is staggeringly obvious. Several important European cybersecurity pure players (e.g., Security Matters, Sentryo, Blueliv to mention but a few) have been acquired by non-European corporates over the last years, resulting in the reduced competitiveness of the European cybersecurity market.
This pressing issue will be tackled in the context of the newly launched joint initiative between the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO), its members and the European Investment Bank (EIB) Advisory Hub, which aims to create a European Cybersecurity Investment platform (ECIP) to help address the funding deficit in cybersecurity technologies.
A special focus will be given to the role of European strategic investors to further develop and strengthen the whole cybersecurity investment chain, leading towards a more comprehensive and integrated European approach to public-private investments in cybersecurity. This is considered a key factor for increasing the EU’s global competitiveness, attractiveness and excellence in cybersecurity.

Participating investors and cybersecurity experts will be invited to share their insights and suggestions on how to overcome the existing barriers and facilitate the growth of the European cybersecurity market. Invited speakers include:

Axel Deininger, CEO & Chairman of the Management Board, secunet Security Networks AG
Javier Diéguez Barriocanal, Director, Basque Cybersecurity Centre (confirmed)
Martin Kreuzer, Member of Board of Directors, Clavister
Thomas Riechmann, VP Cybersecurity Services COO, Atos


Moderator: Luigi Rebuffi, Secretary General, European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO)