We’re excited to release the third edition of the Fortune Cyber 60–our annual list of the most impactful venture-backed cybersecurity companies, presented by AWS and created in partnership with Fortune.
This year’s report arrives at a critical moment. Our companion CISO Survey, conducted with Wakefield Research among 200 security leaders at major enterprises, reveals that 75% of organizations have already experienced AI-related security incidents. Ninety-one percent have detected AI-powered attacks. The threat isn’t theoretical anymore—it’s operational. Yet only 16% of CISOs feel fully equipped to defend against it.
This gap between threat reality and defensive capability is reshaping the entire security market. Eighty-eight percent of organizations are increasing their cybersecurity budgets, with every single one allocating resources specifically to AI security. Understanding where those dollars are flowing—and why—matters for anyone making security decisions or building security companies.
Rigorous Selection, Objective Results
To construct this year’s Cyber 60, we requested information from over 500 cybersecurity startups. We validated data, reviewed business operations, and consulted our CISO network for nominations. Fortune reviewed and validated the final list for objectivity. The result is a credible view of the companies building solutions for the challenges that matter most right now.
The companies cluster around five critical battlegrounds:
AI Governance & Policy Automation
With only one-third of organizations having security lead AI governance processes, platforms that centralize policy and enforcement are in high demand. Zenity, WitnessAI, and Koi are building this infrastructure while nearly half of CISOs struggle with shadow AI usage.
Security Workforce Augmentation
Eighty-eight percent of organizations plan to hire or reskill AI security talent within six months, but the talent pool can’t meet demand at scale. Prophet Security, Legion, Dropzone.ai, and 7AI are deploying agentic AI that automates investigation, triage, and response–multiplying what existing teams can accomplish.
ITDR for Non-Human Entities
AI agents, service accounts, and automated systems are exploding in number, and traditional identity tools weren’t designed for this reality. Oasis Security, Clutch Security, P0 Security, ConductorOne, Astrix, and Veza are pioneering identity threat detection and response purpose-built for machines, not just humans.
AI Discovery & Shadow AI Management
When employees adopt GenAI tools outside IT’s visibility, security teams lose control. Fable Security, Doppel, and Adaptive are building the discovery and governance capabilities that traditional tools miss entirely.
AI Supply Chain Security
Half of CISOs cite third-party model risk as their top governance challenge. VirtueAI, Straiker, XBOW, Endor Labs, and Chainguard are securing AI models and software dependencies from development through deployment.
Innovation Across the Stack
Beyond these five areas, this year’s Cyber 60 showcases remarkable breadth.
- Semgrep is eliminating false positives by combining static analysis with LLMs.
- Upwind is leading the runtime revolution in cloud security.
- Tines and Torq are hyperautomating security operations.
- Cyera is pioneering AI-native data security at remarkable scale.
Above we’ve highlighted just half the companies on this year’s list—the other 31 are equally vital to the future of cybersecurity, tackling everything from cloud security and compliance automation to ransomware protection and secure software development.
We’re grateful to Fortune for partnering with us to ensure rigor and promote objectivity, and to AWS for presenting this work to the security community. We congratulate every company recognized on the 2025-26 Cyber 60 for their contributions to building a more secure future.
Download the full report, including comprehensive CISO Survey findings and detailed company profiles, at lsvp.com/cyber60.
The content here should not be viewed as investment advice, nor does it constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities. The views expressed here are those of the individual Lightspeed Management Company, L.L.C. (“Lightspeed”) personnel and are not the views of Lightspeed or its affiliates; other market participants could take different views.
Unless otherwise indicated, the inclusion of any third-party firm and/or company names, brands and/or logos does not imply any affiliation with these firms or companies.
