SDxCentral in January listed Snyk, Cybereason, Netskope, Lacework, and Illumio as the five security unicorns we expected to apply for an initial public offering (IPO) in 2022. However, none of those IPOs happened.

Companies are facing macroeconomic headwinds that even fast-growing security vendors are not immune to and impacted operations.

SDxCentral reached out to the CEOs of those five vendors to get an update on their IPO plans.

Snyk (Total Funding Amount: $1 Billion):

Snyk, which announced a $196.5 million Series G funding round in December to boost its valuation to $7.4 billion, posted a 100% year-over-year increase in revenue and more than 130% in net revenue retention. The company claims to have more than 2,300 customers.

However, prior to its latest funding round, Snyk went through two rounds of layoffs in 2022. It cut 14% of its workforce in October, months after eliminating 5% of its employee base in June.

“Snyk’s business continues to grow at a healthy pace, more than doubling in size over the past year, increasing our customer base to more than 2,300 customers with strong net revenue retention," Snyk CEO Peter McKay explained to SDxCentral. "We make all important strategic business decisions based on what is best for our employees, customers, and investors. Given the current global economic environment, it is not the right time to pursue an IPO. Once the market is ready, we’ll be ready, but, most importantly, we recognize that becoming a public company is just one milestone in pursuit of our overarching goal: to become a lasting, generational software company that equips and empowers every one of the world’s developers to build securely.”

Netskope (Total Funding Amount: $1 Billion):

Netskope closed a $300 million investment round in July 2021, elevating its valuation to $7.5 billion.

The vendor acquired cloud networking vendor Infiot in August, and enterprise IoT device security startup WootCloud in June to enhance its secure access service edge (SASE) and zero-trust capabilities.

“Netskope remains focused on delivering the best value and the greatest innovations," Netskope CEO Sanjay Beri said. "We continue to build an iconic cybersecurity company by listening to our customers and meeting them where they are at every stage of the SASE journey, enabling them to operate safely and securely in the cloud. The company is experiencing steady strong growth year over year as SASE continues to change the way teams make security and networking purchases and Netskope continues to take market share in the industry. The way we support both single-vendor SASE and integrating mixed-vendor environments ensures our customers maintain flexibility and choice.”

Illumio (Total Funding Amount: $557.5 Million)

Illumio closed a $225 million Series F funding round in mid-2021 that pushed its valuation to $2.75 billion.

Forrester earlier this year named Illumio as a leader in its “New Wave for Microsegmentation” 2022 report alongside rival Akamai Technologies. Microsegmentation is one of the key technologies to achieve a zero-trust model.

The zero-trust security segmentation unicorn also reported a record year of revenue growth for 2021, backed by a nearly 100% year-over-year surge in total bookings, and the addition of more than 140 new customers for its fiscal year of 2021 ending in January.

“Illumio is closing its strongest year yet as we build upon our clear path to profitability in the midst of this economic downturn," Illumio CEO and co-Founder Andrew Rubin noted. "Obviously, the market turbulence has impacted every private and public technology company, and we are focused on innovation, execution, and financial discipline so the company is even stronger coming out of this downturn.”

Lacework (Total Funding Amount: $1.9 Billion):

Lacework in late 2021 secured a then-record $1.3 billion Series D funding round on an $8.3 billion valuation, which followed a $525 million Series C funding round in January 2021.

The vendor in February announced an investment from GV but didn’t disclose the financial terms. Despite those investments, Lacework cut 20% of its workforce in May.

“We made the very difficult decision to say goodbye to some of our colleagues as part of a restructuring and modification to the company plan,” Lacework co-CEOs David Hatfield and Jay Parikh wrote to the Lacework community, addressing the layoffs. The company earlier this year said it employed more than 1,000 people.

Regarding the potential IPO, a Lacework spokesperson told SDxCentral that they "don’t comment on speculations."

Cybereason (Total Funding Amount: $750.6 Million)

Cybereason in mid-2021 secured $275 million in crossover financing led by Liberty Strategic Capital on an estimated $3.1 billion valuation. That followed a $389 million funding round from SoftBank Group, CRV, Spark Capital, and Lockheed Martin.

The vendor also reportedly scored a $50 million investment from Google Cloud in late 2021, which could expand its Series F funding round to $325 million.

Cybereason also confirmed layoffs this year, noting in October it cut 200 jobs, or around 17% of its workforce. It cut 10% of its workforce in May.

“As you all know, less than a year ago we were marching toward an IPO and in the process invested aggressively in R&D, sales, and marketing," Cybereason CEO and co-Founder Lior Div wrote in a message to employees after the second round of layoffs. "As the markets turned, we adjusted our spend and clarified our priorities to focus on customer happiness and innovation in XDR. While we are making significant traction in these areas and our growth remains strong, we are seeing significant volatility in the global financial markets that require us to prioritize profitability over growth.”

Div also debunked rumors that the company was looking for a buyer. “We are building an independent cybersecurity company for the long term," Div explained. "We are not looking to sell the business. And this restructuring, while painful, positions us as a financially resilient, standalone market leader.”

Cybereason didn’t respond to SDxCentral about a potential IPO by press time.