As part of CRN’s coverage looking ahead to 2026, we’re highlighting 10 cybersecurity startups —at the Series C funding level or earlier—that have been on our radar for delivering novel approaches to protecting businesses and engaging with channel partners. Our list of cybersecurity startups to watch in 2026 includes early-stage companies providing identity security, exposure management and data security.
Boards usually ask about security after something goes wrong. I’ve sat through enough of these conversations to recognize the pattern. They ask what failed, which control didn’t work or how an attacker got in. Those are fair questions, but they often come too late.
The past year was dominated by one theme: scale. Scale in data, in AI adoption, in the speed of attacks, and in the number of systems security teams must protect without additional resources. In 2025, organizations tried to understand how deeply AI systems touch their environments, how much of their data is unnecessarily exposed, and […]
