SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Allegis Capital, an early-stage cybersecurity venture capital firm, announced today that David G. DeWalt, the previous CEO of publicly held FireEye and a highly prominent cybersecurity executive and startup board member, is joining the firm as managing director. DeWalt had been a venture partner previously at Allegis.
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Allegis Capital now has four managing directors. They are Robert R. Ackerman Jr. (founder), David G. DeWalt, Pete Bodine and Spencer Tall.
DeWalt, 52, was also a former CEO of cybersecurity market leader McAfee. He is a member or leader of a number of boards of directors of prominent cybersecurity companies, including Callsign, ForgeRock, ForeScout Technologies, Phantom Cyber and Five9. He is also the vice chairman of Delta Airlines. DeWalt’s extensive operating experience and prominence as a cyber industry executive has positioned him as a sought-after advisor and industry expert.
“I’ve had the good fortune to work with the Allegis team on a number of investment opportunities, most recently Callsign,” DeWalt said. “I’m excited about the opportunity to help the Allegis partnership expand its investment capabilities.”
“Dave is one of the most successful operating executives in the cyber industry,” said Bob Ackerman, the founder of Allegis. “His experience, and the networks that come with it, will be a tremendous asset to our firm and our portfolio companies as they grow from solution innovators to market leaders.”
DeWalt’s Dual Roles: Allegis Growth Investor: DataTribe Board Advisor
DeWalt will take a leadership role investing on Allegis’s behalf in growth-oriented Series C investments. In addition, he will become a board advisor of DataTribe, a Fulton, Maryland-based cyber startup studio that co-founds seed-stage startups to fill critical gaps in cyber security, data and analytics. DataTribe and Allegis Capital partner to bring elite startups from seed stage all the way through to IPO or exit.
DataTribe, founded in July 2016 by Ackerman and partners Mike Janke and Steven Witt, leverages disruptive innovation expertise culled from the deep knowledge of veterans of advanced federal government research laboratories. DataTribe has so far co-founded four start-up companies, including industrial control systems security leader Dragos and homomorphic encryption pioneer ENVEIL. Dragos recently raised its Series A financing, an investment co-led by Allegis.
Allegis Capital Changes Name to AllegisCyber: Focus on Seed-To-Growth Platform For More Integrated Cyber Investment Platform
Allegis Capital is also changing its name to AllegisCyber to better mirror the firm’s broader and integrated cybersecurity platform. In addition to the expanded emphasis on early growth-stage and seed-stage investing through DataTribe, AllegisCyber will continue to invest in Series A startups.
In addition to DataTribe, Allegis cyber investments have included, among other companies, Area1, Callsign, CyberGRX, RedOwl, Shape Security, SignifyD, Synack and tCell. These startups are generally more mature than those co-founded by DataTribe.
AllegisCyber’s New Presence on the East Coast: Home To The Largest Number Of Cybersecurity Professionals
Through a new office in Fulton co-shared with DataTribe, AllegisCyber will actively expand its cyber investments on the East coast, principally in Maryland, underscoring the unusually robust investment opportunities there. The metropolitan Washington D.C., area is home to the biggest number of cybersecurity professionals in the U.S., with 3.5 times as many cyber engineers as the rest of the U.S. combined.
“The objective of AllegisCyber is to create an investment platform that can actively engage with the most promising entrepreneurs at any stage of development and deliver the market access, team building and operating experience essential to their success,” Ackerman said.
The new Allegis platform strategy is well suited to the times, as the cybersecurity industry continues to boom.
Markets and Markets forecast that the global cyber market will grow from $138 billion in 2017 to $232 billion by 2022, a compound annual growth rate of nearly 11 percent. Continued rapid growth is projected, in part, because the number of poorly protected Internet of Things (IoT) devices will expand from 8.4 billion worldwide in 2017 to 20.4 billion by 2020, according to technology market analyst firm, Gartner. Also fueling growth will be growing bring-your-own device corporate trends and increased deployment of web and cloud-based business applications.
Stuart McClure, Founder and CEO of Cylance Endorses the AllegisCyber Model
“Allegis’ track record of cyber investment success has established the firm as one of the “go to” investment partners for cyber security entrepreneurs,” said Stuart McClure, the CEO and founder of Cylance and the CTO of McAfee when DeWalt was CEO of McAfee. .“The extension of its platform and the addition of Dave DeWalt as a managing director positions the firm as a clear leader in an explosive market.”
“In DeWalt,” McClure added, “the Allegis team will offer portfolio companies the benefit of one of the most experienced operating executives in the cyber industry.”
About AllegisCyber
AllegisCyber, based in San Francisco, has pioneered an integrated cyber security investment platform spanning seed to early-growth cybersecurity companies. The firm invests on both coasts of the U.S. and in select international opportunities. Robert R. Ackerman Jr. (founder), David G. DeWalt, Pete Bodine and Spencer Tall are the firm’s managing directors. Current investments include Area 1, Bracket Computing, Callsign, CyberGRX, E8 Security, Shape Security, Signifyd, Synack, tCell.io and vArmour. For more information, please visit www.allegiscyber.com.
About DataTribe
DataTribe, co-based in Fulton, Maryland, and Silicon Valley, is a cybersecurity startup studio formed with the mission of combining breakthrough innovation in cybersecurity, Big Data and analytics. It has so far invested in four companies. The technological base of its startups emerge from federal agencies, such as the National Security Agency, or from government research labs. DataTribe draws upon Silicon Valley start-up expertise to help create, define and lead new market segments. As an operating company, it directly takes on the task of building startups from concept to initial customer deployments while significantly lowering risk and preserving returns. For more information, visit www.datatribe.com.
For more information contact: jennifer@jenniferjones.com 650-465-5831.