# Abhishek Agrawal

> Abhishek Agrawal is the Co-Founder and CEO of Material Security, a San Francisco-based cybersecurity company that pioneered zero-trust protection for cloud email and collaboration environments. A Princeton-trained engineer who attended college at 16 and later earned his MBA from Harvard Business School as a Baker Scholar (top 5%), Agrawal co-founded Material Security in 2017 alongside former Dropbox colleagues Ryan Noon and Chris Park, inspired by the 2016 John Podesta email breach. Under his leadership, Material Security reached unicorn status ($1.1B valuation) after a $100M Series C in May 2022 led by Founders Fund, with backing from Andreessen Horowitz, Elad Gil, and Snowflake Ventures. The platform protects organizations like OpenAI, Anthropic, Reddit, Lyft, Roblox, and DoorDash against email-based threats and data loss in Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Material Security
- **Organizations:** Material Security, Dropbox, Microsoft
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BSE, Electrical Engineering and Computer Systems, Princeton University, MBA (Baker Scholar - top 5% of class), Harvard Business School
- **Known for:** Enrolled at Princeton University at age 16, Harvard Business School Baker Scholar (top 5% of MBA class), Co-founded Material Security in 2017, which reached $1.1B unicorn valuation in 2022

## Career timeline

- **2005** — Enrolled at Princeton University at age 16 to study Electrical Engineering and Computer Systems
- **2009** — Graduated from Princeton with BSE in Electrical Engineering and Computer Systems
- **2009-2011** — Software Development Engineer at Microsoft Office Labs, prototyping improvements to the Office suite
- **2011-2013** — Earned MBA from Harvard Business School as a Baker Scholar (top 5% of class)
- **2013-2017** — Senior Product Manager at Dropbox, joined when company was ~250-300 people; shipped collaboration products; met future co-founders Ryan Noon and Chris Park
- **2016** — The John Podesta email breach during the US election inspires the idea for Material Security
- **2017** — Co-founded Material Security with Ryan Noon and Chris Park (all Dropbox alumni)
- **2017-2023** — Served as Co-Founder & CTO, building out Material Security's platform and technical architecture
- **2020** — Material Security raises $22M Series A
- **2021** — Material Security raises $40M Series B, led by Elad Gil and Andreessen Horowitz
- **2022-05** — Material Security raises $100M Series C led by Founders Fund, reaching $1.1B unicorn valuation
- **2023-04** — Transitions from CTO to CEO; co-founder Ryan Noon moves to Chairman role
- **2024-2025** — Expands Material Security platform to include Google Drive data protection, OAuth Remediation Agent, and broader cloud workspace security

## Achievements

- Enrolled at Princeton University at age 16
- Harvard Business School Baker Scholar (top 5% of MBA class)
- Co-founded Material Security in 2017, which reached $1.1B unicorn valuation in 2022
- Raised $184M total funding including $100M Series C led by Founders Fund
- Pioneered zero-trust security approach for cloud email and collaboration environments
- Built customer roster including OpenAI, Anthropic, Reddit, Lyft, Roblox, DoorDash, Figma, Databricks
- Grew Material Security to 86+ employees and $3M+ annual revenue
- First company to apply zero-trust techniques specifically to email archive protection

## Latest updates

- **2024-06** — Agrawal spoke with GovCon Wire on cyber vulnerabilities of email, APIs, cloud infrastructure, and the need for post-breach protections
- **2024-05** — Material Security launched OAuth Remediation Agent, an AI-powered solution for third-party app security risks
- **2024-04** — Material Security expanded to Google Drive data protection, addressing complex edge cases in file security
- **2023-04** — Transitioned from Co-Founder & CTO to Co-Founder & CEO as co-founder Ryan Noon moved to Chairman
- **2022-05** — Material Security raised $100M Series C led by Founders Fund at $1.1B valuation

## Links

- Website: https://material.security
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishek-agrawal-4ab46616
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/abhishek0918

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/abhishek-agrawal
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-13