Years ago I was in a room in San Francisco listening to a prominent CISO tell a story. At the most difficult, most public stretch of his career, when plenty of people he knew went quiet, one person picked up the phone, called him, and invited him to come stay at his home for a while. That person was Robert Rodriguez.
I have told that story probably fifty times since. What stuck with me is when the call happened: at the exact moment there was nothing to gain by making it. No deal, no introduction, no favor coming back. Just a person deciding that another person should not go through something alone.
SINET is that instinct built into an institution. The stated mission is to advance innovation to defeat global cybersecurity threats, and Robert has spent two decades on it. But the way it actually works is the way that phone call worked: personal connection first, and friendships that outlast job titles and headlines. That is why the community SINET has built, connecting CISOs, risk executives, investors, government, and entrepreneurs, is second to none in cybersecurity.
So when I say we are honored that 7AI is one of three finalists for the 2026 SINET Innovator, I mean it. Let me explain what this award is and why it means so much to us.
An award focused entirely on innovation
The SINET16 is free to apply for and free to win. Applications are evaluated in two rounds by a judging committee of 100 security professionals: leading CISOs, risk executives, experts from government intelligence and defense agencies, venture capitalists, and investment bankers. This year, 16 honorees were selected from 158 applications across 10 countries. The people doing the judging are the people who live with these problems, and the entire exercise centers on one question: is this something security teams actually need?
As Robert put it in the announcement:
"Each year we identify early stage companies building what the industry needs, but who can struggle to be seen through the noise in the market."
The judges keep being right
Because we are allergic to unsupported claims, I did the research on what past SINET16 honorees have gone on to do. This is solely from public records and is likely undercounting, but it is remarkable.
Honoree classes date back to 2011. By our score, at least 3 alumni have gone public: FireEye (honored 2011, IPO 2013), CrowdStrike (honored 2014, IPO 2019, now worth north of $100 billion), and Netskope (honored 2015, IPO September 2025 at a $7.3 billion valuation). More than 30 have been acquired, including at least 5 billion-dollar-plus outcomes: Duo Security to Cisco for $2.35 billion, Securiti to Veeam for $1.725 billion, Cylance to BlackBerry for $1.4 billion, and Shape Security to F5 for roughly $1 billion.
Think about what that list means. A committee of practitioners, evaluating companies before the market had decided anything, kept recognizing the ones that would go on to define categories. Fifteen years of receipts.
This year, one Innovator
2026 is the first year the program culminates in a single top honor. Three finalists will present to the judging committee on October 7, and one will be named the 2026 SINET Innovator live on stage at SINET New York on October 8.
The finalists are 7AI, Noma, and Runlayer, and we sincerely congratulate both teams.
Noma is the AI and agent security platform that helps enterprises define and enforce their AI constitution: discovering every agent across endpoint, SaaS, and homegrown AI, governing what they can do, and stopping dangerous behavior by understanding agent behavior and intent.
Runlayer is one platform for AI in the enterprise, spanning MCPs, skills, plugins, and agents, with purpose-built security, fine-grained governance, and complete observability, so organizations can push AI forward across the entire company without the risk.
Notice what the three of us have in common. Every finalist this year is an AI company, which tells you what 100 practitioners believe the next chapter of security looks like. And we each come at it differently: Noma and Runlayer are securing the AI that enterprises are adopting, while 7AI uses AI to do security work itself. The 7AI Platform enables security teams to build, customize, and operate AI agents across the modern SOC, from alert triage and investigation and threat hunting to detection optimization, response, workflow automation, and security data access, built for security organizations that need more capacity, faster outcomes, and a safer way to apply AI to operational work at enterprise scale. Security teams are going to need all of it, and we are proud to stand for our piece of that future alongside two companies we respect.
See you in New York
To be recognized by this community, judged purely on the innovation, means more to us than can fit in a blog post. On October 7 we get 4 minutes in front of the judges, and on October 8 one of the three of us will be named the 2026 SINET Innovator at SINET New York.
If you will be at SINET New York, come find someone from 7AI. We would love to say hello.
