Expectations from Investors

Investment in cybersecurity brings expectations of performance, Sheth said.

“Whether it’s a venture capital fund or a growth equity fund, or a private equity fund that is investing in the companies, they are looking for returns,” he said. “And those are going to be driven by performance of these companies, whether that performance comes in the form of new features, new applications or new revenue, whatever that looks like. But there is definitely expectations and rightfully so on that investment.”

It’s a similar scenario on the M&A front, Sheth said.

“When those acquisitions occur, there is a point of view that says we can scale this business from where it is today to some multiple thereof because there is private equity capital behind it,” he said. “Either they can grow that business faster than what it used to grow, or they can penetrate new sectors faster. Perhaps because there’s capital available, they can potentially acquire new companies because of the capital and grow the business. So there are a lot of different scenarios where I think there’ll be firms who are acquiring the companies or even the strategics that are acquiring the companies. They have a point of view as to how they’re going to grow the business. It comes down to growth for these opportunities.”