Ex-Secret Service Agent Targets $250M for Second Cyber Fund
Original: The ex-Secret Service agent who flipped a hacker is now raising a second $250M cybersecurity fund
Why This Matters
Early-stage cyber funding overtaking late-stage signals a shifting investment cycle worth watching.
Stephen Ward, co-founder of Brightmind Partners, is raising a second ~$250M cybersecurity fund as sole GP after co-founder Gur Talpaz departed in April. The two-year-old firm's debut fund already returned a win: SGNL, acquired by CrowdStrike for $740M.
Stephen Ward, a former Secret Service agent turned venture capitalist, is back in market targeting roughly $250 million for Brightmind Partners' second fund — matching the size of its debut vehicle, which closed late last year. This time he's flying solo. Co-founder Gur Talpaz left in April along with another early colleague, making Ward the firm's sole general partner.
Ward's background is anything but typical VC: Coast Guard search-and-rescue, nine years in the Secret Service (including cybercrime investigations post-9/11), then CISO roles at TIAA and Home Depot before turning to investing. His pitch to LPs is refreshingly blunt — he openly dismisses the IPO narrative that most VCs perform for public consumption. "You have to sell on the way up," he says.
The strategy has early validation. Brightmind led the Series A for SGNL, an identity security startup that CrowdStrike agreed to acquire in January for $740 million — just 11 months after the round closed. Ward is now raising fund two at a moment when early-stage cybersecurity startups are, for the first time in over a decade, pulling in more capital than their later-stage counterparts.