What’s next for cybersecurity, according to Index Ventures’ Shardul Shah

AI-driven advancements are fundamentally reshaping the cybersecurity landscape, triggering a surge in investment as enterprises scramble to defend against increasingly sophisticated, autonomous threats. This shift necessitates a transition from periodic, human-in-the-loop security models to continuous, machine-to-machine defense systems. Venture capital is gravitating toward platform-based startups that address these novel risks, such as agentic identity management and entity risk, rather than fragmented point solutions. Index Ventures partner Shardul Shah emphasizes that successful investment in this volatile environment relies on identifying founders with deep conviction and the capacity to build category-defining businesses, often drawing from the talent pools of previous successes like Wiz. While the current market exhibits signs of irrational exuberance, the underlying demand for resilient security infrastructure remains a permanent, growing necessity as AI-enabled attacks become more widespread and economically efficient for adversaries.