Emerging Cybersecurity Funding Tracker – 1Q23

Rik Turner

Senior Principal Analyst

Rik is a senior principal analyst in Omdia's IT security and technology team, specializing in cybersecurity technology trends, IT security, compliance, and call recording.

Rik has also worked in Omdia's financial services technology team, with a specialization in capital markets technology. Prior to joining Informa (now Omdia), he worked as an IT journalist, specializing in networking and security. He was also a foreign correspondent in Brazil, where he worked, among others, for the Financial Times and The Economist.  

Maxine Holt

Senior Director, Cybersecurity

Maxine Holt leads the Omdia cybersecurity research group and is the lead architect of the Omdia Cybersecurity Ecosystem. Her team delivers a comprehensive cybersecurity research program to support vendors, service providers, and enterprise clients. Maxine also leads the Omdia Analyst Summit at the high-profile Black Hat event series.

Maxine has spent her entire career as an IT and security professional. She has been at Omdia since 2018, following a spell at the Information Security Forum (ISF), developing thought-leading security research for ISF members. Before ISF, Maxine spent 15 years in research at Ovum, starting her career as a software developer in the financial services industry and consulting for the financial services and internet sectors. Maxine is a regular event speaker and contributes articles to high-profile publications in cybersecurity.

Siraj Aziz

Research Analyst

As part of Omdia's research operations team, Siraj assists in providing research and analysis support for various research products (subscription-based, ad-hoc, and consulting) in transformative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and 5G across sectors such as retail, manufacturing, and security technology.

Prior to joining Omdia, formerly IHS Technology, Siraj worked as a research assistant at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. He had brief assignments as a research intern at the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) and Securities Commission Malaysia. Previously, at legacy IHS Technology, Siraj served as a research analyst, covering the Smart Cities Project Database, Fintech Scorecard, and AI Start Up Funding Tracker, among other products.

Siraj holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Kent, UK. In October 2019, he graduated with a master’s degree in development studies from the University of Malaya.  

Sivalingam Muniandi

Research Manager

As part of Omdia's research operation team, Sivalingam Muniandi leads the projects from the service provider, consumer, and enterprise market sectors, with a specific interest in telecom operator multi-play strategies, subscriber and revenue trends, new service rollouts, regulatory developments, telco merger and acquisition activity, and pay TV.

Prior to joining Omdia, formerly IHS Markit, Siva worked as a senior research analyst, covering telecoms and pay TV in Asia Pacific. He also worked at Maxis Berhad, Malaysia as a business analyst on the regional sales team.  During his time there, Siva was responsible for data mining, KPI and sales performance reporting, market research, competitor insights, trade management, vendor management, and compliance control.

Siva holds a Bachelor of Information Technology (Hons.) in multimedia systems from Wawasan Open University, Malaysia. He is currently pursuing the Commonwealth Executive Master of Business Administration and is based in Penang, Malaysia.