Dive Brief:

• Coalition, Inc., a cybersecurity insurance provider, hired Jim Young as its first ever CFO, the company said in a statement Aug. 5. Young previously served as finance chief at biological technologies developer Indigo Ag. and plans to accelerate the growth of the company. “Achieving our mission, our growth and doing this all in a world class way are the top of mind goals for me,” he said in an interview. 
• The creation of the CFO position comes after the company announced on July 8 it raised $250 million in a series F funding round. Led by Allianz X, Valor Equity Partners, Kinetic Partners and other existing investors, Coalition’s valuation rose from $3.5 billion to $5 billion. 
• With the expansion of their leadership team, Coalition is aiming to solve the massive cybersecurity problem that exists for businesses — the topic continues to be at the forefront of C-suite executives’ minds.

Dive Insight:

Throughout his career as a finance executive, Young found that many investors asked him what kept him up at night. “My answer then – not knowing that I was going to be in the cybersecurity business – was cybersecurity,” he said. “All CFOs need to be at least conversant on this, and at best the most knowledgeable in the industry, because the investment required is significant.” 

During his time as a CFO, Young co-chaired a cybersecurity committee, not because he was an expert but because he was losing sleep and wanted to learn more about it, he said. 

Before Indigo Ag, Young spent eight years at Visa, Inc. where he focused on their initial public offering (IPO) for his first two years there. After helping Visa go public in 2008, Young became the CFO of Broadridge Financial Solutions, a fintech company. 

From his background, Young is able to draw “both an understanding of how a young company operates – making sure you get all the good of innovation, speed and agility, married with layering at the right time, the sort things that you need to be a strong global company,” he said. 

As for the future of Coalition, they are still in the early days, but Young said they have all of the attributes of a public company.  “We have a massive market,” he said, “job one is to get this business to bigger heights.”

The global cybersecurity market is projected to grow from $155.8 billion in 2022 to $376.3 billion by 2029, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate of 13.4%. “The market is still really nascent in my mind and barely penetrated,” said the finance chief, “we have a foe in hackers and criminals that evolve as well. So that keeps this industry pretty dynamic,” he said. 

The San Francisco, Calif.- based company has announced three quarters of a billion dollars in premium written, said Young. Their main mission is protecting businesses — and they have made inroads with mostly small and medium sized businesses. 

In 2021, overall claims rose 56% for small organizations under $25 million in revenue as small businesses were increasingly targeted by cyber attackers and ransomware. According to Young, no business is too small to invest in protection.

Coalition also appointed John Littzi as general counsel, and added Julie Richardson as a board member the same day Young was hired to further accelerate growth.

Young said he doesn’t believe he is doing his job unless there is a true partnership created with other C-suite members. “I think especially for a high growth company, those partnerships are even more important because it's, more or less defined, and we're a dynamism that requires a lot of back and forth and iterating,” he said.

The company announced its first chief marketing officer hire last June.