Cybersecurity should be ensured in minutes: BluSapphire CEO

Having worked with security operations for almost 17 years and with cybersecurity teams for about eight years, Kiran Vangaveti realised that cybersecurity was not keeping pace with increasing digitisation in the world.

“In a day and age where big data analytics is available, we should be able to respond and remediate cybersecurity threats in minutes and seconds, rather than in days and weeks. Moreover, when security products operate in silos with closed-sourced tools and architectures, it is very difficult for us to have visibility across the entire lifecycle of a threat,” says Vangaveti.

Realising these gaps, Vangaveti decided to leave his previous role as the Chief Information Security Officer at Tudor Investment Corporation in 2017 and launched the first version of a cybersecurity platform in 2018. Today, it has morphed into BluSapphire, a cloud-native cybersecurity platform that automates the process of threat detection, analysis, response, and remediation. 

So far, the Hyderabad-headquartered firm, which expanded to the Middle East during the pandemic, has helped more than 40 clients across India and the Middle East. The company has a team of over 70 people. 

BluSapphire raised $9.2 million as part of its Series A round in October 2022 with participation from Dallas Venture Capital, RPG Ventures, Merisis Venture Partners, and Binny Bansal backed xto10x. ValueBridge Capital was the sole advisor for this transaction.

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The Product

BluSapphire focuses on cybersecurity operations, which include customised tools that provide solutions such as anomaly detection, sandboxing capabilities, and behaviour analytics among others.

“Clients have integrated some other cybersecurity tools like Splunk or QRadar, but are looking for more solutions. Instead of throwing away the old system and replacing it with a new one, we just provide required tools that integrate with the existing systems,” says Vangaveti.

Clients can subscribe to BluSapphire solutions on a monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis. The subscriptions are priced between $80,000 and $120,000 per year.

It uses AI and ML tools to identify faint malicious signals early on in an attack. With built-in automation, it can identify and respond to threats within minutes. 

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Middle East and the Pandemic

BluSapphire entered the Middle East at the beginning of the pandemic and had to  pause operations for a couple of months during its peak o As the pandemic-induced restrictions eased, BluSapphire renewed its operations in the region at the start of this year. 

Vangaveti feels that while IT infrastructure boomed during the pandemic, not everyone thought about cybersecurity. 

“The Middle East is no different when it comes to the kind of digital transformation and the rush towards the cloud during the COVID times. But cybersecurity was not a part of those discussions,” he says.  “And that translated into an accelerated rate of cybersecurity attacks on digital infrastructure, especially the cloud. But now, cybersecurity awareness and consumption are increasing dramatically.”

While the Middle Eastern cybersecurity market has potential, it comes with heavy competition from the West. Vangaveti considers IBM QRadar and California-based cybersecurity firm Splunk competitors in the region. 

“There is a branding issue for Indian cybersecurity firms. We are mostly seen as service providers and not as product companies. So, we have to work on the branding of our product. We are working with local distributors who help us achieve this,” Vangaveti adds.

In the future, Vangaveti wants to expand aggressively in the region, focusing on Saudi Arabia.

(Cover Image by Winona Laisram)

(This story has been updated to reflect the correct size of the team.)