Vladislav Rasskazov, Director of Venture Investments

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(IS) market discussed the situation with the development of IS startups in Russia and suggested how soon they will become attractive for greater financing from large corporations.

Igor Kheresh, Asset Management Director at Solar Group, spoke about the drivers of the information security market growth: "In Russia, the growth of the information security market has exceeded the same figure on a global scale. The volume of the Russian market was 145 billion rubles. Currently, there are about 230 companies in the information security sector in the country. However, we believe that there should be more than 1.5 thousand. There are drivers that will help the market grow: the need for import-substituting solutions, the willingness to work with point products; increased budgets and increased brazil whatsapp number database attention to information protection; low competition; the transition of customers from mature foreign ecosystems to point solutions; the willingness of companies to experiment more with startups; an increase in the number of attacks. Every year, about 20-30 companies in the field of information security are born in the country, but at this rate, we will reach the 1.5 thousand mark in about 10 years. Slow progress is due to the fact that the industry is heavily regulated."
and Partnerships at Solar Group, concluded why the growth rate of the number of companies is so low: “In 2023, we conducted a study of customers and startups in the information security market. We wanted to understand why so few projects appear annually. To do this, we surveyed about 50 startups and 84 companies. We realized that customers and real startups think differently. Customers immediately want to see a mature market player with a large number of clients and a more advanced version of the product. Startups have been working towards this goal for about five years. As a result, we found out that only 13% of companies work with startups in the field of information security. 52% are potentially ready to work, but have doubts, the remaining 35% are not ready at all. The most common reason is unwillingness to invest in the product. Large companies do not want to trust the infrastructure to young companies and are afraid of the financial instability of startups. But there are also positive signals. Small teams are ready to solve customer issues in a shorter time than mature organizations, they can adapt and play the role of a security partner more than a mass business. A startup is a temporary form of business, just looking for a configuration that will allow it to become a young company and then scale the business."

To solve the problem of interaction between startups and businesses, Solar Group released and presented the Cyber ​​Stage product at a press conference. Its goal is to facilitate the emergence and effective development of new projects in the information security market. The program has several objectives: creating a convenient platform for interaction between participants in the information security market and related areas; providing young companies with an individual support trajectory; providing young companies with access to the expertise of mature organizations; stimulating the launch of new projects in empty or insufficiently covered information security niches; reducing the level of barriers for startups in developing a product and bringing it to market; increasing the attractiveness of information security for IT entrepreneurs.

David Ordyan, CEO of the vulnerability search service Metascan, spoke about the benefits of the Cyber ​​Stage program for young startups: "We once started as a team of two people with virtually no external investment or partners. Now our clients include large Russian banks and other companies. At the beginning, we understood that we could write code, but we lacked sales, marketing, finance, and communications competencies. Then we turned to a similar, but less functional platform, which helped us a lot. Such programs are needed to plug the holes that young startups have. Financing is an acute problem. Within the program, it can be obtained depending on needs. But there are more important things besides money. For example, connections, which the program also provides, unlike other similar programs. In addition, the entry threshold for young entrepreneurs will be lower, and they will receive good subject matter experts. The program is a high-quality tool for business development, and, in my opinion, it can and should be used."