India’s digital transformation has reached unprecedented heights in 2026, with the nation’s cybersecurity industry emerging as a critical pillar supporting this massive technological shift. As cyber threats grow increasingly sophisticated and frequent, Indian cybersecurity startups have risen to the challenge, developing innovative solutions that combine artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cloud-native technologies to protect organizations from evolving digital dangers. With over 1,600 cybersecurity startups now operating in India and the industry valued at approximately twenty billion dollars, the country has established itself as a global hub for cybersecurity innovation. This article explores the ten most promising and impactful cybersecurity startups that are shaping India’s digital defense landscape in 2026.
1. CloudSEK
CloudSEK has distinguished itself as a predictive cyber threat intelligence leader, utilizing artificial intelligence to detect and anticipate attack chains before they materialize. Founded in 2015 by cybersecurity researcher Rahul Sasi in Bengaluru, CloudSEK has achieved remarkable growth and recently became the first Indian-origin cybersecurity company to receive investment from a United States state fund.
The company’s flagship platform, XVigil, continuously maps digital footprints across the surface web, deep web, and dark web, monitoring for credential exposures, data leaks, impersonations, and vulnerabilities before they escalate into full-blown attacks. Complementing this is BeVigil, a specialized tool for mobile app security that helps identify malicious applications and security flaws. CloudSEK’s cloud-native Software as a Service platform correlates weak signals and identifies emerging attack paths, giving organizations crucial lead time to strengthen defenses.
CloudSEK has raised over thirty-two million dollars across multiple funding rounds, including a nineteen million dollar Series B1 round in May 2025 led by strategic investor Commvault, with participation from MassMutual Ventures, Inflexor Ventures, Prana Ventures, and Tenacity Ventures. In January 2026, the company secured an additional ten million dollars in Series B2 funding from Connecticut Innovations, the strategic venture capital arm of the State of Connecticut. This landmark investment came after CloudSEK emerged victorious at VentureClash, Connecticut Innovations’ global investment pitch competition, where CEO Rahul Sasi presented before distinguished judges including former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi and Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont.
The company serves over three hundred enterprises across banking, healthcare, technology, and government sectors globally. CloudSEK’s ability to provide real-time predictive intelligence and its focus on external attack surface visibility sets it apart in an increasingly crowded market. The Connecticut investment will enable CloudSEK to establish its United States regional headquarters, recruit top cybersecurity and artificial intelligence talent, and drive region-specific security research initiatives.
2. FireCompass
FireCompass has revolutionized offensive security through its artificial intelligence-powered platform that automates penetration testing and red teaming at unprecedented scale. Founded in 2019 in Bengaluru by co-founder and CEO Bikash Barai, FireCompass has built an agentic AI-driven platform that thinks and acts like real attackers, continuously identifying exploitable risks across an organization’s entire attack surface.
The platform integrates attack surface management, continuous threat exposure management, network and application penetration testing, penetration testing as a service, and red teaming capabilities into a unified solution. What makes FireCompass truly distinctive is its use of thousands of attack playbooks to run real-world attack simulations in safe environments. The multi-stage adversary emulation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK framework, enabling the platform to identify vulnerability exposure within twenty-four hours of a new CVE disclosure. This speed advantage is critical in today’s threat landscape where attackers often exploit newly discovered vulnerabilities within hours.
FireCompass raised twenty million dollars in Series B funding in September 2025 from EC-Council, creator of the Certified Ethical Hacker program, as part of EC-Council’s one hundred million dollar Cybersecurity Innovation Fund. This strategic partnership brings total funding to approximately thirty million dollars. The company has also attracted cybersecurity luminaries to its advisory board, including renowned security expert Bruce Schneier, who joined in March 2025 to help guide the platform’s artificial intelligence capabilities.
The platform’s ability to automate complex, multi-stage attack paths differentiates FireCompass from traditional penetration testing services. Where human penetration testers might conduct assessments quarterly or annually, FireCompass provides continuous validation of security posture, moving laterally through networks and chaining vulnerabilities just as sophisticated attackers would. This continuous red teaming approach aligns perfectly with the needs of modern enterprises that face persistent, evolving threats.
3. Safe Security
Safe Security, originally founded as Lucideus in 2012 by Saket Modi, Rahul Tyagi, and Vidit Baxi, has established itself as a pioneer in cyber risk quantification. The company’s flagship platform, SAFE, represents a breakthrough in how organizations measure and manage cybersecurity risks in real-time. Rather than relying on compliance checklists or periodic assessments, SAFE continuously quantifies cyber risks, allowing business leaders to make data-driven security investment decisions.
Safe Security’s platform uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide comprehensive risk scoring that translates technical vulnerabilities into business impact metrics. This approach resonates particularly well with C-suite executives and board members who need to understand cybersecurity in terms of potential financial and operational consequences. The platform assesses an organization’s entire digital ecosystem, including cloud infrastructure, applications, networks, and third-party connections, providing a holistic view of security posture.
The company has secured seventy million dollars in Series C funding, one of the largest cybersecurity investment rounds in India. This substantial funding reflects investor confidence in Safe Security’s risk quantification methodology and its potential to become a global leader in enterprise security. The company serves Fortune 500 companies and has expanded its presence internationally, particularly in North American and European markets.
What distinguishes Safe Security is its focus on predictive risk analytics rather than reactive incident response. The platform continuously updates risk scores based on emerging threats, changes in the attack surface, and new vulnerabilities, giving security teams actionable intelligence about where to prioritize remediation efforts. This proactive stance aligns with the broader industry shift toward prevention rather than detection and response.
4. Sequretek
Founded in 2013 by Pankit Desai and Anand Naik, Sequretek has built a comprehensive artificial intelligence-driven security operations platform that combines managed services with advanced technology. The company’s core offering, the Percept Cloud Security Platform, integrates multiple critical security functions including extended detection and response, endpoint detection and response, and identity governance and administration.
Sequretek’s platform reportedly processes approximately four billion security events daily, using machine learning models trained on diverse datasets to detect zero-day exploits and sophisticated attacks across endpoints, applications, and networks. This massive data processing capability enables the platform to identify anomalies and attack patterns that would be nearly impossible for human analysts to spot manually. The company positions itself as a next-generation Security Operations Center provider, offering twenty-four-hour monitoring and automated incident response capabilities.
The company raised eight million dollars in Series A funding in 2023, led by Omidyar Network India with participation from Narottam Sekhsaria Family Office and Alteria Capital. Total funding stands at approximately twenty-one million dollars. Sequretek serves banks, government agencies, healthcare organizations, and enterprises across India and internationally, with particular strength in sectors that require stringent compliance and continuous monitoring.
Sequretek’s hybrid model combining advanced technology with managed security services addresses a critical gap in the market. Many mid-sized enterprises and even larger organizations lack the in-house expertise to operate sophisticated security tools effectively. By providing both the platform and the security operations expertise, Sequretek enables clients to achieve enterprise-grade security without building large internal security teams. The company’s focus on the Indian market, understanding local regulatory requirements and industry dynamics, gives it a competitive advantage over global vendors.
5. WiJungle
WiJungle represents a unique approach to network security by offering a unified network security gateway platform that consolidates multiple security functions into a single, manageable solution. Founded in 2014 by cousins Karmesh Gupta and Praveen Gupta in Jaipur, WiJungle initially launched as a free WiFi service before pivoting to cybersecurity in 2017. This origin story reflects the founders’ understanding of network infrastructure and user access management.
The company’s all-in-one platform integrates firewall protection, virtual private network services, uniform resource locator filtering, intrusion prevention, WiFi hotspot management, software-defined wide area networking, and more, all managed through a single interface. This unified approach appeals particularly to small and medium enterprises and government organizations that need enterprise-grade security but lack the resources to manage multiple point solutions. WiJungle’s platform uses artificial intelligence and machine learning analytics to detect anomalies across both wired and wireless networks.
WiJungle has received national recognition, winning the Graham Bell Award from NITI Aayog and being selected among the top two cybersecurity startups in the DPIIT National Startup Awards 2021. The Data Security Council of India and NASSCOM awarded WiJungle the Most Innovative Cyber Security Product Of The Year. These accolades from government and industry bodies underscore the platform’s innovation and effectiveness.
The company serves government ministries including the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Agriculture, along with the Airport Authority of India, Aljazeera Airways, and major hotel chains like Hyatt and Royal Orchid Hotels. With clients across twenty-five countries, WiJungle has demonstrated that Indian cybersecurity innovation can compete globally. The platform’s ability to reduce security infrastructure costs by up to sixty percent while simplifying management makes it particularly attractive to cost-conscious organizations.
6. Kratikal Tech
Kratikal Tech has established itself as a leading end-to-end cybersecurity solutions provider with particular expertise in penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, and cybersecurity awareness. Founded in 2013 by NIT-Allahabad alumni Pavan Kushwaha, Paratosh Bansal, and Dip Jung Thapa, the company was incubated under the Ministry of Telecom and recognized under Startup India. Kratikal earned recognition as one of the top six startups at the NASSCOM Product Conclave showcase in 2018.
The company’s flagship product, ThreatCop, uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to simulate real-world attack scenarios, helping organizations assess human vulnerabilities in their cybersecurity defense systems. This focus on the human element of security is crucial, as employee errors and social engineering attacks remain primary vectors for breaches. Kratikal also offers KDMARC, an email authentication and anti-spoofing tool designed to address threats posed by email-based attacks, and AutoSecT, an automated penetration testing tool.
As a CERT-In empaneled cybersecurity auditor, Kratikal brings government-aligned certifications and methodologies to its clients. The company provides comprehensive vulnerability assessment and penetration testing for web applications, mobile applications, networks, cloud infrastructure, Internet of Things devices, and operational technology systems. Kratikal also conducts internal audits for various compliance frameworks including ISO 27001, GDPR, SOC 2, PCI DSS, and regulatory requirements from RBI, SEBI, and IRDAI.
Kratikal serves over six hundred small and medium enterprises and one hundred fifty large enterprises worldwide across fintech, manufacturing, telecom, healthcare, e-commerce, and cloud service platforms. Notable clients include Kotak Mahindra Bank, Aditya Birla Capital, Himalaya Wellness, PVR Cinemas, Fortis Healthcare, and Pine Labs. The company’s combination of automated tools and expert services, along with its strong compliance credentials, makes it a trusted partner for organizations seeking comprehensive security assessments.
7. InstaSafe
InstaSafe has positioned itself as a leader in zero-trust network access and software-defined perimeter solutions, addressing the security challenges created by cloud adoption and remote work. Founded in 2012, InstaSafe emerged as one of India’s first startups focused on replacing traditional corporate virtual private networks with per-session micro-segmentation and zero-trust access controls.
The company’s product suite includes Zero Trust Application Access, Zero Trust Network Access, and a Secure Access Service Edge gateway. These solutions enable organizations to provide secure access to IT resources for remote employees without the complexity and security limitations of traditional VPN architectures. InstaSafe’s cloud-based security-as-a-service platform protects mobile and remote workers, allowing them to securely access enterprise applications, email, and web resources on any network while protecting against credential theft and server exploitation.
The zero-trust security model that InstaSafe champions has become increasingly critical as organizations move to hybrid work environments and cloud infrastructure. Traditional perimeter-based security models assume that users and devices inside the corporate network can be trusted, but this assumption has become dangerous as networks extend to home offices, mobile devices, and cloud services. InstaSafe’s approach verifies every access request regardless of where it originates, significantly reducing the attack surface.
InstaSafe’s solutions are particularly relevant for organizations transitioning to hybrid work models, where employees need secure access to corporate resources from various locations and devices. The platform’s ease of deployment and management makes it attractive to organizations that need to implement zero-trust principles without extensive security expertise. As remote and hybrid work arrangements continue to be the norm in 2026, InstaSafe’s solutions address a fundamental and growing need.
8. TAC Security
TAC Security has built a comprehensive vulnerability and exposure management platform that provides continuous security assessment across an organization’s entire attack surface. Founded by Trishneet Arora, a former army commando turned cybersecurity entrepreneur, TAC Security has quickly become one of India’s fastest-growing cybersecurity firms. The company’s flagship product, ESOF (Enterprise Security Operations Framework), is an artificial intelligence-driven platform that continuously identifies, prioritizes, and facilitates remediation of cyber risks.
ESOF provides comprehensive coverage across web applications, mobile applications, cloud assets, Internet of Things and operational technology devices, and even blockchain networks. The platform essentially provides continuous red-teaming capabilities, moving beyond traditional point-in-time penetration tests to ongoing risk assessment and scoring. This continuous approach is essential in modern environments where new vulnerabilities emerge daily and attack surfaces constantly evolve as organizations adopt new technologies and services.
TAC Security’s platform uses automation to scale vulnerability management, enabling security teams to understand their risk exposure across thousands of assets without proportionally increasing headcount. The platform’s risk scoring helps prioritize remediation efforts, focusing limited security resources on the most critical vulnerabilities that could lead to actual breaches rather than getting lost in long lists of low-impact findings.
The company serves enterprises across banking, technology, healthcare, and retail sectors, helping them maintain continuous visibility into their security posture. TAC Security’s ability to provide enterprise-scale vulnerability management with artificial intelligence-driven prioritization positions it well in a market where organizations struggle to keep pace with the volume of vulnerabilities disclosed each year.
9. Innefu Labs
Innefu Labs leverages artificial intelligence to provide advanced cybersecurity solutions with particular emphasis on authentication, access management, and predictive intelligence. The company has developed a strong reputation for cutting-edge research and innovation, earning trust across defense, healthcare, banking, and government sectors. Innefu Labs’ product line addresses sophisticated security challenges that traditional tools struggle to handle effectively.
The company’s solutions include multi-factor authentication systems that go beyond simple two-factor authentication to provide adaptive, context-aware access controls. These systems evaluate multiple factors including user behavior, device characteristics, location, and risk indicators to make real-time decisions about granting access. Innefu Labs also offers predictive intelligence capabilities that use machine learning to identify potential security incidents before they occur, moving beyond reactive detection to proactive prevention.
Innefu Labs’ work with defense and government agencies demonstrates the trust placed in its technology for protecting sensitive national security information and critical infrastructure. These sectors demand the highest levels of security, reliability, and innovation, and Innefu Labs’ success in serving them reflects the maturity and sophistication of its solutions.
The company’s emphasis on research distinguishes it from competitors focused primarily on productizing existing security concepts. Innefu Labs invests significantly in developing novel approaches to authentication, threat detection, and access control, contributing to the broader advancement of cybersecurity capabilities. This research focus positions the company well for long-term success as cyber threats continue evolving in sophistication.
10. Data Resolve Technologies
Data Resolve Technologies specializes in insider threat management and endpoint security, addressing one of the most challenging and often overlooked aspects of cybersecurity: threats from within the organization. While external attackers receive significant attention, insider threats whether from malicious employees, negligent users, or compromised accounts represent a substantial portion of security incidents. Data Resolve’s flagship product, inDefend, helps organizations monitor and secure sensitive information against data leaks and unauthorized access.
inDefend uses encrypted insider threat management technology to analyze user behavior, monitoring activities and communication patterns to detect anomalies that might indicate data exfiltration or policy violations. The platform provides incident alerts when it detects suspicious data movement or access patterns, giving security teams the ability to respond quickly to potential insider threats. By encrypting its monitoring capabilities, inDefend addresses privacy concerns while still providing effective security oversight.
Data Resolve also offers MobSec, a solution focused on mobile workforce management and security. As organizations increasingly rely on mobile devices for business operations, securing these endpoints and ensuring appropriate use becomes critical. MobSec helps organizations maintain visibility and control over their mobile device fleet while protecting sensitive data accessed through these devices.
The company’s focus on behavioral analytics and user activity monitoring represents an important complement to perimeter and network security tools. Many data breaches involve legitimate credentials used inappropriately or sensitive data being exfiltrated through authorized channels. Data Resolve’s ability to detect these subtle indicators of compromise adds an essential layer to comprehensive security strategies, particularly for organizations in regulated industries with strict data protection requirements.
The Future of Indian Cybersecurity Startups
The Indian cybersecurity startup ecosystem stands at an inflection point in 2026. With strong government support, increasing venture capital funding, and a large talent pool, Indian startups are well-positioned to become global leaders in cybersecurity innovation. Several key trends will likely shape the sector’s evolution over the coming years.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning will continue to play central roles in next-generation security products. As cyber attackers increasingly leverage AI for sophisticated attacks, defensive technologies must match or exceed these capabilities. Indian startups have demonstrated strong capabilities in developing AI-powered threat detection, risk quantification, and automated response systems, and this strength will likely expand further.
The shift toward zero-trust architectures and continuous verification will accelerate as organizations recognize that traditional perimeter-based security no longer suffices. Indian startups like InstaSafe and WiJungle that have embraced these architectural principles early are likely to benefit from this broader market transition. Cloud-native security solutions will become increasingly important as organizations complete their cloud migrations and adopt multi-cloud strategies.
Regulatory compliance will remain a significant driver of cybersecurity adoption in India and globally. As data protection regulations multiply and mature, organizations will need sophisticated tools to demonstrate compliance and manage privacy requirements. Indian startups that can navigate complex regulatory landscapes while providing strong security will find substantial opportunities, particularly in banking, healthcare, and government sectors.
The talent gap in cybersecurity presents both challenges and opportunities. Startups that can deliver effective security through automation and managed services will be able to help organizations achieve strong security postures without requiring proportional increases in specialized headcount. This democratization of advanced security capabilities could accelerate adoption and expand the addressable market significantly.
International expansion will be crucial for Indian cybersecurity startups to achieve scale. While the domestic market offers substantial opportunities, achieving unicorn status and beyond will likely require success in markets like North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Recent examples like CloudSEK’s expansion into the United States demonstrate the viability of this strategy, and more Indian startups are likely to follow this path.
Conclusion
India’s cybersecurity startup ecosystem has evolved from a nascent collection of service providers to a sophisticated landscape of innovative product companies developing globally competitive solutions. The ten startups highlighted in this article represent the leading edge of this transformation, each bringing unique capabilities and approaches to solving critical security challenges. From predictive threat intelligence and automated penetration testing to zero-trust access and insider threat management, these companies are addressing the full spectrum of cybersecurity needs.
As digital transformation accelerates and cyber threats grow more sophisticated, the importance of strong cybersecurity will only increase. Indian startups are well-positioned to meet this challenge, combining technical talent, entrepreneurial energy, and deep understanding of both local and global market needs. Organizations seeking to strengthen their security postures in 2026 and beyond would do well to evaluate the innovative solutions emerging from India’s cybersecurity startup ecosystem. These companies are not just protecting India’s digital future; they are helping to secure the global digital economy.
