Cybersecurity Quarterly Market Review: Q1 2026 Cybersecurity M&A and Capital Markets Report (Momentum Cyber)

Summary

• Q1 2026 saw 108 M&A transactions, the 2nd highest quarterly count recorded, with $2.6B in disclosed M&A value, down 5% from last year.p.6
• Cybersecurity financing reached $3.8B raised across 211 transactions, with deal value up 33% and deal count down 7% YoY.p.22
• Private equity accounted for 45% of M&A deal flow in Q1 2026, up from 41% in 2025, while strategic buyers represented 87% of total M&A value.p.6
• The most active M&A sectors were Security Services (44 deals), Risk & Compliance (16 deals) and AI Security (12 deals).p.7
• AI Security captured 46% of financing dollars deployed in Q1 2026.p.25
• U.S.-based companies accounted for 51% of all minority financing volume and 69% of all VC capital deployed.p.26
• High-growth public cybersecurity companies trade at 5.5x EV / '26 revenue.p.29

Key insights

1. CrowdStrike's two acquisitions totaling $1.1B drove much of the strategic M&A value.p.6
2. Financing value of $3.8B outpaced M&A value of $2.6B, the 4th such occurrence since 2018.p.6
3. AI Security had 12 M&A deals in Q1, while the segment only had 10 all of last year.p.17
4. Q1 2026 witnessed 6 disclosed M&A deals worth more than $100M, tracking below the records set in 2025.p.18
5. March recorded 32 M&A deals, just below the median monthly total of 34, and only 3 had a disclosed deal value.p.16
6. Cybersecurity SaaS M&A deal volume has grown at a CAGR of 20% since 2019, passing 200 transactions in 2025 for the first time.p.19
7. Median cybersecurity financing size declined to $13M in Q1 2026, down from $15M in 2025.p.22
8. March 2026 recorded 72 financing transactions totaling $1.7B, including Tenex's $250M Series B.p.24