Balbix: 2022 Top Startups for the Enterprise

Founder: Gaurav Banga (CEO)
Launched: 2015
Headquarters: San Jose, California
Funding: $101.6 million
Valuation: $420 million
Key technologies: Cloud computing, machine learning
Category: Cybersecurity

Balbix uses AI and automation to reinvent how leading organizations reduce their cyber risk, an issue that's getting more complex every year. Former Cisco CEO John Chambers is an investor in the company, which was founded by Gaurav Banga, an inventor with over 70 patents and who was a co-founder of cybersecurity firm Bromium, sold to HP in 2019.

Embracing a business model referred to as cyber posture automation, the goal is to quantify the risks of hacking to organizations and move the cyber defense decision-making across the entire C-suite rather than focused solely on CISOs. As Chambers put it in a blog post on his investment, "It no longer makes sense to think of the job of the CISO as one focused on preventing breaches by implementing the right technical security controls. Instead, CISOs need to facilitate the quantification of cyber risk in business terms and help drive the rest of the leadership team towards speedy cyber risk remediation/mitigation efforts before a breach even happens."

To date, the company has raised $101.6 million over three rounds, with the most recent being $70 million in March. Investors include Alter Venture Partners, Redline Capital, Third Point Ventures, and Nautilus Venture Partners.