Founders: Evan Reiser (CEO), Sanjay Jeyakumar
Launched:Â 2018
Headquarters:Â San Francisco
Funding: $284 million
Valuation: $4 billion
Key technologies: Artificial intelligence, machine learning
Industry: Cybersecurity
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 List: 0
Cybersecurity threats are escalating with the rise of generative AI and a shift to the cloud, driving corporate spending on cyber defenses into the hundreds of billions of dollars.
Numerous vendors are chasing the opportunity, among them San Francisco-based Abnormal Security. As the name implies, the company veers from the norm to protect customers and evaluate risks by applying data science, AI and computer vision to identify and prevent targeted email attacks. Its automated AI technology picks up on usage patterns by employees and vendors across platforms to detect abnormalities in email behavior that might indicate a threat.
Launched in 2018 by two software architects and founders of Twitter-acquired TellApart, Abnormal Security doubled in size and crossed more than $100 million in annualized revenue last year. The cybersecurity software contender protects 2,000-plus customers, including Maersk, Xerox and Mattel — in all, some 15% of the Fortune 500.
Abnormal Security is focused on the threat of advanced email attacks, one of the larger cybersecurity risk areas for corporations, among others such as phishing attacks, malware, spam and vendor fraud.
With Microsoft surpassing $20 billion in cybersecurity revenue last year, competition has picked up among incumbents Cloudflare, Zscaler and Palo Alto Networks, and fellow Disruptors Wiz and Arctic Wolf. The market is also undergoing consolidation. Two main rivals to Abnormal Security have been acquired over the past few years — Avanan by Check Point Software, and Area 1 Security by Cloudflare.
Gearing up, CEO Evan Reiser is busily building out his team with several strategic hires. Last year, Michael DeCesare, a former CEO at Exabeam and Forescout Technology, was brought on board as president, focusing on go-to-market jobs across departments.
Additionally, CrowdStrike veteran James Yeager was recently hired to head up public sector sales, an area that the email security vendor is targeting for growth. As a further signal of its goals and, ultimately a potential IPO, in March the AI cybersecurity vendor recruited as CFO Smita Sanadhya, a former executive at Microsoft Hong Kong and HP as well as startup Okta, which she helped to scale to a $2 billion public company. Also joining the leadership ranks at Abnormal Security was chief legal officer Jeff True, who previously led Zoom's legal department over a period of superfast growth during the pandemic.
A hiring spree is continuing at the company, with as many as 300 new positions to be filled this year out of a current base of 600 employees.
Funding for growth has stemmed from nearly $300 million in venture capital at a $4 billion valuation, including a 2022 round that was led by Insight Partners, and followed $50 million in 2020 from Menlo Ventures and Greylock, its earliest venture investor back in 2018, when Abnormal Security was a scrappy startup.
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