BitSight Technologies: Top Security Ratings Solutions

By AakanshaMonday August 14, 2023

Companies frequently lack a thorough understanding of security performance, despite the fact that cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities continue to grow and adapt. Even many of them struggle to assess how well they perform in terms of security, let alone the threat posed by third- or fourth-party providers. But businesses can quantify their vendor ecosystem and security posture correctly with the right cybersecurity assessment tool.

A well-known US company called BitSight Technologies created security rankings to assess the level of security and cyber risk in businesses, governmental organisations, and educational institutions. Read the article to find out more about BitSight Technologies’ founding team, mission, products, funding, expansion, and other details.

Introducing BitSight Technologies

BitSight Technologies is revolutionising how businesses, governments, and educational institutions control performance, exposure, and cyber risk for both themselves and their suppliers. Additionally, businesses depend on BitSight Technologies to help them prioritise their cybersecurity spending, increase ecosystem trust, and lower the likelihood of financial loss.

The platform was developed over a decade of technological advancement, and its integrated solutions provide value for enterprise security performance, cyber insurance, digital supply chains, and data analysis. More than 180 governmental and quasi-governmental organisations rely on this Boston-based corporation, which has more than 3000 clients worldwide.

BitSight Technologies: Cybersecurity Industry

With a projected global market value of $221.72 billion in 2022, BitSight Technologies operates in the cybersecurity sector. And with a notable CAGR of 14.59%, the market is anticipated to increase to $657.02 billion by 2030. Increased data breaches, growing digitization, and sophisticated cyber attacks are all contributing to the market’s explosive rise.

Many businesses adopted a remote working culture during COVID-19 and implemented cyber security tools, which grew the industry. Cisco Systems, Inc., Palo Alto Networks, Trend Micro Incorporated, and McAfee, Inc. are a few well-known cybersecurity companies.

The Founders and Team

Co- Founders: Nagarjuna Venna and Stephen Boyer

CEO: Steve Harvey

About Nagarjuna Venna

Nagarjuna Venna holds a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Warangal as well as an M.Sc. in MS, SDM Fellow from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He held positions as Product Manager at EXFO Service Assurance and Principal Engineer at Brix Networks. He co-founded BitSight Technologies as well as Saperix Inc., which was acquired by Firemon in 2011. He also co-founded Saperix Inc. in 2010.

About Stephen Boyer

Stephen Boyer earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Brigham Young University and his master’s degree in system design and management from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He co-founded Saperix Inc. in 2010, which Firemon purchased in 2011. He was formerly a software engineer at Caldera. Stephen currently serves as the co-founder, CTO, and a member of the CNBC Technology Executive Council for BitSight Technologies.

About Steve Harvey

The CEO of BitSight Technologies is Steve Harvey. He formerly held positions as Chief Operating Officer at ISS, Head of Global Account Management at RiskMetrics Group, and Managing Director at Dow Jones.

Chief Risk Officer- Derek Vadala

Chief Marketing Officer- Catherine Harrel;

Chief Customer Officer- Mark Desautelle

Chief Product Officer & GM- Alex Laats

Chief FInancial Officer- James Hillier

There are 800 people working for BitSight Technologies.

The beginning of BitSight Technologies

In 2011, Stephen Boyer and Nagarjuna Venna, a friend and fellow graduate school student, co-founded BitSight Technologies. They came up with the initial concept for an international cybersecurity grading system. Stephen was familiar with many of the difficulties the businesses experienced since, prior to attending graduate school, he worked for the US government for several years in the field of cybersecurity.

Because they were committed to enhancing cybersecurity’s state globally, Nagarjuna and Stephen founded BitSight Technologies. In 2016, the business released Portfolio Thresholds and Analytics. After a year, BitSight Technologies produced the first impartial assessment of the country’s cybersecurity risk in 2017.

The business presented the industry’s first cybersecurity performance planning in 2018 and the first analytics solution and peer analytics in 2019. In order to support businesses in 2022 in responding to severe vulnerabilities, it improved the third-party risk management platform. The corporation broadened its integrated cyber risk management category in April 2023, a year later.

By 2021, BitSight Technologies’ valuation had climbed from $155 million in 2018 to $2.4 billion. The business completed the first half of 2022 in August 2021, achieving $100 million in ARR. Revenue at BitSight Technologies increased by 280% over this time. The public sector saw outstanding growth, increasing by 42% year over year.

BitSight Technologies: Purpose and Aspirations

BitSight Technologies wants to improve cybersecurity. The company’s goal is to protect the global economy from the effects of cyber events while enabling businesses to thrive confidently in the digital economy and make smarter cyber risk decisions.

Product and Services

Cyber Insurance, Third-Party Risk Management, and Security Performance Management are the three solutions offered by BitSight Technologies.

Business Model of BitSight Technologies

Enterprises may understand the security performance of their suppliers, customers, and other third or fourth parties with the help of BitSight Technologies’ most extensively used Security Ratings system. Higher scores indicate greater cybersecurity performance; the company’s ratings range from 250 to 900. When determining security ratings, factors including past security performance and performance evolution are taken into account.

By gathering security data from billions of stored data points and internet occurrences, BitSight Technologies creates security ratings. This information enables BitSight Technologies to identify compromise indications, infected devices, cyber hygiene, harmful user behaviour, and cybersecurity policies within the client’s organisation, enabling the company to produce an overall assessment of the enterprise’s security performance.

With annual costs ranging from a few thousand dollars to over $1 million to evaluate thousands of vendors, BitSight Technologies operates on a subscription basis.

Investments and Financing

By participating in 7 financing rounds, BitSight Technologies raised $401.6 million. Its most recent investment round, the Corporate Round, raised $250 million on September 13, 2021. Additionally, the $1 million raised on April 15, 2011, brought the Seed Round to a close. Menlo Ventures, GGV Capital, Warburg Pincus, Singtel Innov8, and Globespan Capital Partners are a few notable investors who support the business. Moody’s Investors Service also does.

Mergers and Acquisitions: Three businesses were purchased by BitSight Technologies: Anubisnetworks on October 21, 2014; ThirdPartyTrust on August 4, 2022; and VisibleRisk on September 13, 2021.