# Irina Denisenko

> Irina Denisenko is the co-founder and CEO of Knox Systems, an Austin-based cybersecurity company that delivers 'FedRAMP as a Service' to help commercial software vendors get authorized to sell to the U.S. government in roughly 90 days instead of years. She started Knox in 2023 after living through the FedRAMP bottleneck herself as COO of Class Technologies, where she scaled the company to $50M in ARR. A repeat operator who also helped build drone company PrecisionHawk, Denisenko positions Knox as a challenger to Palantir's FedStart, backed by Felicis Ventures and roughly $31.5M in total funding.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at Knox Systems, Inc.
- **Organizations:** Knox Systems, Inc., Class Technologies, PrecisionHawk
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Knox Systems, delivering FedRAMP authorization in ~90 days at up to 90% lower cost than traditional processes., Scaled Class Technologies to $50M ARR, ~200 employees, and over $350M raised as co-founder and COO., Helped build PrecisionHawk into a leading U.S. drone technology company prior to its acquisition.

## Career timeline

- **earlier** — Held roles in consulting and operations before moving into startup leadership.
- **pre-2023** — Built PrecisionHawk, a U.S. drone technology company, into an industry leader; later acquired by Norway's The Field Group.
- **pre-2023** — Co-founded and served as COO of Class Technologies, scaling to $50M ARR, ~200 employees, and $350M+ raised; acquired a FedRAMP-authorized company to speed federal entry.
- **2023** — Co-founded Knox Systems and became CEO.
- **2024** — Knox launched publicly as a federal managed cloud / 'FedRAMP as a Service' provider.
- **2025** — Raised $6.5M seed led by Felicis Ventures; enabled 20+ SaaS vendors to enter the federal market; won CRN Women of the Channel Award.
- **2026** — Named a WashingtonExec 'Top DOW Exec to Watch'; spoke at the Agent Conference; Knox total funding reached ~$31.5M.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Knox Systems, delivering FedRAMP authorization in ~90 days at up to 90% lower cost than traditional processes.
- Scaled Class Technologies to $50M ARR, ~200 employees, and over $350M raised as co-founder and COO.
- Helped build PrecisionHawk into a leading U.S. drone technology company prior to its acquisition.
- Raised a $6.5M seed round for Knox led by Felicis Ventures, with Ridgeline and FirsthandVC participating.
- Enabled 20+ SaaS vendors to enter the federal market in 2025, including Celonis's FedRAMP authorization in under 30 days.
- Won a CRN Women of the Channel Award.
- Built strategic partnerships with Carahsoft, AWS, Microsoft, and Google.

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — Named a WashingtonExec 'Top DOW Exec to Watch in 2026.'
- **2026-03** — Featured in Washington Technology on how Knox aims to help others crack the FedRAMP bottleneck; Knox total funding reported around $31.5M.
- **2025-12** — Profiled by WashingtonExec in a career Q&A ('Wired to Move Toward Complexity').
- **2025-07** — Knox announced a $6.5M seed round led by Felicis Ventures.

## Links

- Website: https://knoxsystems.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/irinadenisenko
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyEljUEJBsg

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/irina-denisenko
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-17