More Statistics about Funding Security and Defence Startups

We thought we’d share some remaining statistics about the innovators that entered the GSC last year. Approximately 51% of the startups that entered were self-funded while nearly 30% had been funded by VCs. The remaining 19% had a mix of grant or angel funding.

Of those that were funded the majority (approximately 65%) received less than $1 million, with 23% receiving $1-5 million. At the top end – those receiving more than $5 million in VC funding – comprised about 12% of our entrants. Hopefully this number increased after their involvement in the competition.

Now if we take one cross-section of entrants, for example just those who entered from the US, we see a similar pattern to the world-wide statistics. The majority of entrants (44%) are boot-strapping their companies. The next largest group, coming in at 31% of the total, is being funded with VC money. With nearly 25% startups receiving grants there is a bit of a bump over the global average. Is this because the US Government is forward leaning in supporting research and development?

Opportunity For Investors
The good news for investors is that there are a lot of unfunded security startups around the world. The Global Security Challenge 2008 will be a great place to interact with startups and to learn more about the security innovation landscape.