Stephen Ward Raises a Second $250M Cybersecurity Fund

Stephen Ward, co-founder of Brightmind Partners, is raising a second cybersecurity fund targeting roughly $250 million, about the size of the firm’s first fund. Ward is now the firm’s sole general partner after co-founder Gur Talpaz and another early colleague left in April.

Brightmind’s debut fund closed late last year at $250 million. One portfolio company, identity security startup SGNL, was acquired by CrowdStrike for $740 million, 11 months after Brightmind led its Series A, according to the report.

Ward’s career spans four years in Coast Guard search and rescue, nine years with the Secret Service, and CISO roles at TIAA and Home Depot. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, he moved into cyber investigations. In New York, he arrested a hacker responsible for what the report describes as the era’s largest credit card data theft, then recruited him as an informant. Ward says the hacker continued hacking and later falsely implicated him. Ward spent roughly 18 months clearing his name; the hacker ultimately received a 20-year sentence.

Ward joined Brightmind in 2024 after three years at Insight Partners, where he worked on Wiz, Abnormal Security, and Elisity. The report says IonQ agreed in October to buy Elisity for up to $1.3 billion. Ward is raising the new fund amid a shift in which early-stage cybersecurity startups are raising more money than later-stage rivals for the first time in more than a decade.