# Chris Sestito

> Chris ‘Tito’ Sestito is the Austin-based co-founder, CEO and board chairman of HiddenLayer. After leading the response to a 2019 adversarial machine-learning attack at Cylance, he joined longtime colleagues Tanner Burns and Jim Ballard to build security tools specifically for AI. HiddenLayer emerged from stealth in 2022, won the 2023 RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox, and raised a $100 million Series B in September 2026, bringing disclosed funding to $156 million.

- **Role:** Chairman of the Board, CEO & Co-Founder at HiddenLayer
- **Organizations:** HiddenLayer, Qualys, Agari, Cylance, BlackBerry, The Media Trust, US Foods
- **Education:** Associate of Science in Computer Information Systems, concentration in Network Security, ECPI University, Data Science, Analytics & Visualization program, The University of Texas at Austin
- **Known for:** Co-founded HiddenLayer after helping respond to a documented 2019 adversarial machine-learning attack at Cylance., Led HiddenLayer to win the 2023 RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox award for Most Innovative Startup., Built a career spanning threat research, intelligence, data science and engineering leadership at Cylance, Agari and Qualys.

## Career timeline

- **2012-2014** — Worked as a territory manager at US Foods.
- **2015** — Moved into cybersecurity as a malware analyst at The Media Trust.
- **2016-2020** — Advanced through threat-research roles at Cylance and BlackBerry, ultimately leading threat research and helping respond to a 2019 adversarial machine-learning attack.
- **2020** — Joined Agari as Senior Director of Data Science.
- **2021** — Joined Qualys as Vice President of Engineering, Data Science.
- **2022-04** — Co-founded HiddenLayer with Tanner Burns and Jim Ballard and became CEO.
- **2022-07** — Brought HiddenLayer out of stealth with a $6 million seed round.
- **2023-04** — Led HiddenLayer’s winning pitch at the RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox.
- **2023-09** — HiddenLayer announced a $50 million Series A.
- **2026-09** — HiddenLayer raised a $100 million Series B led by Delta-v Capital, bringing disclosed funding to $156 million.

## Achievements

- Co-founded HiddenLayer after helping respond to a documented 2019 adversarial machine-learning attack at Cylance.
- Led HiddenLayer to win the 2023 RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox award for Most Innovative Startup.
- Built a career spanning threat research, intelligence, data science and engineering leadership at Cylance, Agari and Qualys.
- Has delivered cybersecurity and data-science training for Fortune 500 organizations and government agencies.
- Led HiddenLayer through $156 million in disclosed funding, including a $100 million Series B in 2026.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — HiddenLayer raised a $100 million Series B led by Delta-v Capital to expand its AI security platform and agentic runtime protections.
- **2026-09** — Sestito discussed agent intent, runtime protection and privacy-preserving customer learning in an interview with The Stack.
- **2026-03** — HiddenLayer’s 2026 AI Threat Landscape Report highlighted autonomous agents as a growing attack surface; Sestito argued that security must evolve without removing the autonomy that makes agents useful.
- **2026-03** — RSA Conference published a retrospective in which Sestito said the 2023 Innovation Sandbox win materially increased customer and investor attention.

## Links

- Website: https://hiddenlayer.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ctito/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/hiddenlayersec

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/chris-sestito
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-28