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Kiran Vangaveti, who has been with security operations for 17 years and has been working with cyber security teams for eight years, realizes that cyber security is not keeping pace with the increasing digitization of the world.
“In the day and age of big data analytics, we need to be able to respond and remediate cybersecurity threats in minutes and seconds, not days and weeks. Additionally, when security products operate in silos within closed devices and architectures, it’s very difficult to have visibility into the entire risk lifecycle.” ” says Vangaveti.
Recognizing these gaps, Vangaveti In 2017, he decided to leave his previous role as Chief Information Security Officer at Tudor Investment Corporation and in 2018 launched his first cyber security platform. Today, it has evolved into BluSapphire, a cloud-native cybersecurity platform that automates the process of threat detection, analysis, response and remediation.
So far, the Hyderabad headquarters, which expanded to the Middle East during the outbreak, has helped more than 40 customers across India and the Middle East. The company has a team of more than 70 people.
BluSapphire has raised $9.2 million as a Series A round in October 2022 with participation from Dallas Venture Capital, RPG Ventures, Meresis Venture Partners and Binny Bansal backed by xto10x. ValueBridge Capital was the exclusive advisor for this transaction.
The product
BluSapphire focuses on cybersecurity operations, including custom tools such as spam detection, sandboxing capabilities, and behavioral analysis, among others.
“Customers have integrated some other cybersecurity tools like Splunk or QRadar, but they want additional solutions. Instead of scrapping the old system and replacing it with a new one, we offer essential tools integrated with existing systems,” says Vangavetti.
Customers can subscribe to BluSapphire solutions monthly, quarterly and annually. The subscriptions cost $80,000 to $120,000 a year.
It uses AI and ML tools to detect weak malicious signals early in the attack. With built-in automation, it can detect and respond to threats in minutes.
The Middle East and the pandemic
BlueSapphire entered the Middle East when the outbreak began and had to suspend operations at peak levels for two months o When restrictions imposed by the outbreak were eased, BlueSapphire resumed operations in the region earlier this year.
Vangaveti feels that when IT infrastructure was expanded during the outbreak, not everyone was thinking about cyber security.
“The Middle East is no different when it comes to digital transformation and the rush to the cloud during Covid. But cyber security was not part of those discussions,” he said. This has translated into accelerated cyber security attacks on digital infrastructure, especially in the cloud. But now, awareness and consumption of cyber security is increasing dramatically.
While the Middle East’s cybersecurity market has potential, it comes with intense competition from the West. Vangavetti sees IBM QRadar and California-based cybersecurity company Splunk as competitors in the region.
There is a branding issue for Indian cyber security firms. We are mostly viewed as service providers, not product companies. So we need to work on our product branding. We are working with local distributors who will help us achieve this,” added Vangaveti.
In the future, Vangaveti wants to expand significantly in the region, focusing on Saudi Arabia.
(Cover image by Winona Laizram)
(This story has been updated to reflect the true size of the group.)
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