The Palo Alto company doesn't just find your sensitive files. It traces where they go - across browsers, apps, code repos, and AI chatbots - and stops them from walking out the door.
THE MARK. Cyberhaven's brand identity, built around its core idea of data lineage - following information wherever it flows.
Most data-security tools ask a simple question: where is my sensitive data? Cyberhaven decided that was the wrong place to start. The company built its platform to answer a harder one - what is happening to that data, and how do I stop it from leaving my control? The difference sits at the heart of a business that reached a $1 billion valuation in April 2025.
The answer is a technology Cyberhaven calls data lineage. Instead of scanning storage for files that match a pattern, its software follows a piece of content from the moment it originates - through email, browsers, SaaS applications, collaboration tools, code repositories, and increasingly into generative-AI systems like ChatGPT. Knowing that a file was pulled from a source-code repository and then copied to a personal cloud drive tells you far more than knowing the file merely exists.
On top of that lineage engine, Cyberhaven unifies four security categories that the industry usually sells separately: Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM), Insider Risk Management, and AI security. The bet is that discovery and enforcement should share one data model rather than be stitched together from point tools.
Round sizes, approximate. Total raised ≈ $250M. Series D led by StepStone Group with Schroders and Industry Ventures.
Scan storage and endpoints. Match content against patterns and rules. Answer: "Where is my sensitive data?" - and drown analysts in false positives.
Trace a file's full lineage and context as it moves. Answer: "What is happening to this data, and how do I stop it from leaving?"
Legacy DLP vendors - Forcepoint, Symantec, Proofpoint - still dominate email and endpoint protection in older environments. Newer data-security players like Varonis, Cyera, Netskope and Zscaler crowd the DSPM space. Cyberhaven's wedge is architectural: by putting discovery and enforcement on one lineage-based data model, it aims to replace the patchwork of point tools that enterprises assembled over the last decade.
Unifies DLP, DSPM, and Insider Risk Management on a single data model powered by data lineage - tracking content across endpoints, browsers, SaaS, collaboration tools, and code repositories.
Detects and responds to data risk in motion by following the full lineage and context of a file, rather than relying on static scanning or predefined patterns.
An autonomous system built on a "large lineage model." A Detection Agent flags risky behavior without preset policies; an Analyst Agent investigates incidents using multimodal understanding of images, code, and documents.
Shadow AI Discovery, AI Usage Insights, AI Risk IQ, and AI Data Flow Control - tools to see and govern how employees send sensitive data into generative-AI tools.
Figures reported by Cyberhaven from customer deployments of Linea AI.
Cyberhaven sells to large enterprises and regulated organizations that fear the same thing - data walking out the door. A chipmaker protecting product designs, a data-cloud giant guarding source code, a law firm shielding client files. What they share isn't an industry; it's the problem.
Cyberhaven started in 2016 in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded by five PhD researchers - Cristian Zamfir, Volodymyr Kuznetsov, George Candea, Radu Banabic, and Vitaly Chipounov - with roots in the 2016 DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge and prior work deploying security tools at companies like Apple and Google. Early DARPA-linked funding helped the team build the data-lineage engine before commercial money arrived.
The company relocated to Palo Alto and, in June 2020, brought in Howard Ting as CEO. He grew Cyberhaven from roughly 18 people to 240 and a billion-dollar valuation before transitioning to the board in May 2025, when product chief Nishant Doshi stepped in as interim CEO. Doshi previously founded CirroSecure (acquired by Palo Alto Networks) and Propelo (acquired by Harness).
The business runs on a familiar enterprise-SaaS engine: subscription licenses to a cloud-delivered platform, priced by module and by the number of endpoints and users it protects. Growth comes from landing in one part of a customer's data estate and expanding across it - plus add-on AI capabilities through Linea AI. Estimated annual revenue is around $52 million.
Five PhD researchers found Cyberhaven in Lausanne, Switzerland, inspired by the era's encryption and data-access debates.
An early Series A helps commercialize the data-lineage technology as the team heads toward Palo Alto.
The company had roughly 18 employees when Ting joined to lead go-to-market expansion.
Cyberhaven brings its DLP and data-tracing platform to market alongside a Series B round.
Bookings triple ahead of the round; Cyberhaven unveils Linea AI, an autonomous agent for insider risk.
Attackers hijack Cyberhaven's browser extension via phishing; a rapid fix and public writeup follow.
A $100M Series D led by StepStone Group values Cyberhaven at $1 billion; Nishant Doshi becomes interim CEO.
Cyberhaven is a data-security company that traces how data moves across an enterprise - endpoints, browsers, SaaS apps, code repositories, and AI tools - to detect and stop data exfiltration and insider risk. Its platform unifies DLP, DSPM, Insider Risk Management, and AI security.
Data lineage is Cyberhaven's core technology that tracks a file's origin and every movement it makes, rather than just scanning where data is stored. This lets it distinguish real risk - like an employee copying source code to a personal drive - from benign activity.
Cyberhaven has raised roughly $250 million in total. Its April 2025 Series D of $100 million, led by StepStone Group, valued the company at $1 billion.
Cyberhaven serves large enterprises and regulated organizations, including Snowflake, Motorola, Reddit, Western Digital, Iron Mountain, Navan, and law firms such as Kirkland & Ellis.
Linea AI is Cyberhaven's autonomous AI system for data security, built on a "large lineage model." It uses a Detection Agent to spot risky behavior without preset policies and an Analyst Agent to investigate incidents, helping customers cut manual review by up to 90% and response time by up to 80%.