The Hague, March 11th, 2024 – In a significant leap forward for the cybersecurity sector, Eye Security has announced a €36 million Series B investment led by J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners with participation from existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and TIN Capital. The funding round marks a new chapter in Eye Security's mission to protect businesses across Europe.
Founded by a team of Dutch Intelligence and Security Services experts, Eye Security has experienced rapid growth, now boasting a diverse team of over 100 professionals across three countries. The company's pioneering approach makes enterprise-level 24/7 cyber protection, incident response, and cyber insurance available to mid-market businesses. Eye Security is trusted by hundreds of customers across sectors ranging from automotive, manufacturing, healthcare, financial services and information technology, among other industries.
“Our journey began with a vision to tackle the escalating cyber risks that businesses face daily,” said Job Kuijpers, CEO of Eye Security. “We’re excited to extend our mission across Europe, giving our customers and strategic partners the reassurance that comes with knowing they’re partnering with a leader in cybersecurity and insurance.”
With this new round of funding, Eye Security plans to deepen its presence in existing markets, such as the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium, while also expanding across select European countries in 2024. In doing so, Eye Security is committed to continuing its delivery of high-quality, people-led cybersecurity solutions that have earned the trust and appreciation of their current clients.
Europe has a €50 billion cybersecurity market that is expected to grow at a CAGR of ~10.8% through 2029 to reach a €85+ billion market opportunity. Despite the large and fast-growing market, much of this spending goes towards protecting large enterprise companies, and leaves many of the remaining 24.4 million companies in the EU vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks. Protecting non-enterprise businesses has become increasingly important as they are the recipient of ~50% of all cybersecurity attacks and subsequently, 60% of those that are hacked go out of business within six months.
Eye Security is also uniquely positioned to capitalise on the upcoming tailwinds generated by the NIS2 directive issued by the European Union. EU member states must transpose NIS2 into their country’s national cybersecurity legislation by October 17th, 2024. The directive creates stringent cybersecurity breach reporting timelines for companies to their respective government authority. Failure to comply may result in fines in up to €10M or ~2% of the total annual worldwide sales in the Company’s previous fiscal year. Regulatory agencies and consulting firms recommend companies strengthen their cybersecurity posture by creating incident handling procedures, employee awareness training, etc.
"In today's landscape, where cyber threats are ever-present, businesses frequently struggle to find reliable cyber insurance," says Job Kuijpers. "Eye Security tackles this challenge directly. We've developed a scalable platform that not only strengthens a business's defences against cyber threats but also quickly delivers insurance coverage. Our comprehensive approach means our customers are fully protected against cyber risk.”
"Eye Security fills a critical gap in providing advanced cybersecurity and insurance coverage at an accessible price point to mid-market companies. Non-enterprise companies continue to be disproportionality impacted and lack the necessary incident response capabilities.” said Topher Dawe, Managing Partner at J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners, “When contextualised with the upcoming European Union NIS2 directive and a continued cybersecurity talent shortage, we believe Eye Security is well positioned to help address this gap. We are excited to partner with the Eye team and support the company’s mission.”
About J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners
J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners (“GEP”) manages a $1B growth equity fund partnering with leading enterprise software, fintech, real estate technology and consumer companies. GEP’s capital is a combination of the firm’s balance sheet alongside a broad set of institutions, family offices and individual investors.
GEP is the technology focused late-stage venture and growth equity investment arm of J.P. Morgan Private Capital. J.P. Morgan Private Capital, which is part of J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives – the alternative investment arm of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, provides customised financing solutions for private companies across the capital structure. J.P. Morgan Global Alternatives has more than 50 years as an alternatives investment manager, $213 billion in assets under management, and more than 800 professionals (as of June 30, 2023).
