Snyk earns another $196m as valuation drops 12% to $7.4bn

Snyk hasn't been afraid to take the cash over the years, making a bigger and bigger investment with each round, and each has resulted in an increase in valuation proportionally large. This time that particular streak came to an end, but Snyk landed another investment of $196.5 million with a valuation down about 12% to $7.4 billion since his previous round in September 2021. /p>

This previous round was $530 million, including $300 million in primary funding and the remaining $230 million in secondary funding to repay early investors and employees eager to see a return on their equity. Main money came on a valuation of $8.5 billion, up $1.1 billion from today's round.

It should be noted, however, that even with this down cycle, the previous cycle was up $3.8 billion from the March cycle. You can see the company's ascent up to this round in the chart below:

Snyk CEO Peter McKay said getting the terms right was more critical than increasing the valuation, especially in today's market. "So it was more important that we got the terms right than that I absolutely had to get to $8.6 billion. If the market says you're at 7.4, then we're at 7.4," a- he said.

Part of that is because while the company is growing, the market has changed since the last round. "Despite the headwinds that I think everyone sees in the market, we still managed to grow over 100% in terms of new logos and revenue, so we're very pleased," he said. declared.

The company still has most of the money from last year's round in the bank, but it saw an opportunity to get more money, which could help it grow the platform. -shape, both organically and through acquisitions.

"What you do with a market like this is you focus on making your business more efficient, you focus on getting free cash flow faster. You make sure that your balance sheet is as strong as it gets. And be opportunistic,” he said.

He sees that Snyk's market around developer security remains fragmented, and he sees an opportunity to consolidate by buying companies when it makes sense and taking advantage of what he sees as a very large TAM . McKay says the company's size has tripled since its last funding round, from 400 employees to 1,200, but he sees ways for the company to be more efficient for investors in other ways, aimed at break even by 2024 as a prime example.

Most security startups go platform or get absorbed into a platform, and Snyk apparently wants to be a platform player at this point. This cash should help the company wait out the stock market for a friendlier IPO environment.

"We really haven't set a time. We think there will be a wave [of IPOs] in the first half of 2023. We'll watch and see how they do and based on that , maybe we'll make a decision on what we do...I don't even want to speculate on a time because who knows when? Nobody has that answer," he said. he declared.

Today's investment was funded by new investors Evolution Equity Partners, G Squared, Irving Investors and Qatar Investment Authority. Existing investors Boldstart Ventures, Sands Capital and Tiger Global also participated. The company has now raised $1.075 billion.