BluSapphire: Bridging the Cybersecurity Gap with AI, Big Data, and Global Ambitions
CXOToday has engaged in an excluvive interview with Mr. Kiran Vangaveti, Founder and CEO, BluSapphire Cyber Systems
1. What was your motivation for launching BluSapphire? What gap are you trying to address?
Throughout my years of experience in the cybersecurity domain, I realised that cybersecurity programmes always stayed counterproductive with negative ROI due to capability issues. Due to siloed technologies and service implementation with no automation lever, it would take too long to detect, investigate, and remediate security threats, which adversely impacted enterprises’ overall cyber resilience.
So, in 2017, I established BluSapphire to bring the entire security operations dynamics onto a single pane of glass rather than having separate tools detecting and responding to cyber threats across the IT landscape.. BluSapphire is a hyper-growth cybersecurity SaaS platform that automates the process of Cyber threat detection, analysis, response, and remediation.
2. What is your business growth model?
BluSapphire provides a flexible SaaS platform that empowers customers to select the essential functionalities needed to address cyber threats and establish a robust cyber resilience framework. With our pay-as-you-go model, customers only pay for the data storage they use. Moreover, our comprehensive range of services includes Managed Detection and Response, allowing customers to focus on their core business while our expert team handles their cybersecurity requirements. We offer three flexible packages, starting with BluSapphire Basic, which can be upgraded based on the customers’ cybersecurity maturity cycle.
Since our inception, we have collaborated with solution providers and integrators, empowering them to deliver cutting-edge services to their clients via our technology stack. Towards the end of last year, we successfully secured our first institutional round of funding, enabling us to expand our operations further in North America and the Middle East. What’s noteworthy is that we have always operated profitably. We value our resources wisely and are self-sustaining. Presently, our revenue streams primarily originate from North America, and we anticipate comfortably having 3X growth this year. Our target market primarily comprises medium-sized enterprises with revenue ranging from 100 million up to 4-5 billion. However, we are also diversifying our offerings to cater to smaller-scale medium enterprises, with revenues ranging from 50 million to 100 million, as we identify emerging opportunities in this segment.
3. In which sectors are your clients present?
We provide our services to numerous medium-sized businesses pretty much in all areas. Primarily, however, we are in the precision manufacturing, healthcare, BFSI, and media sectors. Medium-sized enterprises are our target market right now because that’s an evolving segment. While large enterprises have considerable resources and can build cyber armies to deal with problems, medium enterprises get left behind. Managed service providers are also unable to keep up with changing cybersecurity dynamics, and so, we see tremendous market opportunity in this space.
4. Do you have any plans for the next round of funding?
Yes, we are working towards aSeries B funding round in the next 18 months.
5. How is BluSapphire keeping pace with the rapid evolution of the digital world?
Cyber security is a fast-changing space where developments and innovations occur every year. We closely monitor all advancements and strive to adapt and be at the bleeding edge thanks to our expert R&D team. We’ve done this over the past six years that we’ve been around, and we will continue to do this in the future.
6. How is BluSapphire leveraging tools such as AI, ML, and big data analytics?
BluSapphire’s pioneering platform is powered by AI and Big Data analytics. We use AI and ML tools to identify faint malicious signals early on in an attack. With built-in automation, BluSapphire can identify and respond to threats within minutes. With this technology, we enable organisations to quickly transform their cyber resilience program addressing growing cyber risks.
At the same time, we’re also experimenting with AI and ML to understand how they can better help augment an analyst’s understanding of the system. A lot is still up in the air, and there’s still a lot of hallucination involved. Numerous companies are plugging into the generative AI trend without a proper understanding of the privacy implications, but we are carefully weighing this.
7. Which markets is BluSapphire currently focusing on? Are any expansion plans in the works?
North America is a primary market for us where we are seeing a lot of traction, with 90% revenue coming in from there. Other than North America, we are pursuing the Middle East as a closer opportunity. I strongly believe that India will witness tremendous growth in the security space two years from now, so we are currently expanding our team here. We aim to become leaders in the Indian cybersecurity space, and when it starts manifesting, we’ll be among the first to take advantage of the opportunities available.