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7AI Named to Fortune 2026 Cyber 60 and CRN 2025 Stellar Startups
On October 30th, I traveled to the New York Stock Exchange for an event celebrating 7AI's inclusion in Fortune's 2026 Cyber 60 list, alongside 59 of the fastest-growing cybersecurity companies in the world. Just 267 days after launch, 7AI is installed in production at some of the world's largest enterprises and proving that agentic security isn't a future concept—it's operational today.
This week brought another validation: 7AI was recognized on CRN's 2025 Stellar Startups list, highlighting our commitment to building with and through channel partners who are essential to delivering exceptional security outcomes at scale.
Together, these recognitions tell a complete story: enterprises are ready for agentic security, and we've built the right product with the right go-to-market strategy to meet that moment.
Fortune Cyber 60: The Market Is Moving Faster Than Anyone Expected
Getting on a "hot startups" list is one thing. Making the Fortune Cyber 60 is something else entirely.
Lightspeed Venture Partners surveyed over 500 cybersecurity startups, evaluating them on annual recurring revenue, growth rate, and market impact. They validated every data point. They consulted their CISO network. They researched competitive landscapes. They looked at who's actually solving real problems for real enterprises.
We're on that list alongside companies that have been building for years, some generating hundreds of millions in annual revenue. Companies in their second and third consecutive year of recognition. Industry veterans.
And then there's 7AI—already working with Fortune 500 enterprises, already proving that agentic security isn't theoretical. It's operational.
What Lightspeed's Research Reveals About Market Readiness
Lightspeed's CISO survey of 200 security leaders at companies with $500M+ revenue reveals a market at an inflection point:
88% of CISOs report budget increases. Despite economic uncertainty, security spending is accelerating. Organizations aren't cutting back—they're doubling down on achieving measurable outcomes.
60% plan urgent hiring within six months. But here's the reality: CISOs tell us every day that they have a dual challenge with hiring: they can't hire enough skilled people and when they do, they don't want them spending all their effort on non-human work. Every CISO we talk to describes the same breaking point: their teams are drowning in repetitive investigation work. They want to shift people up, turning L1 analysts into threat hunters.
The industry's response has been more of the same: better dashboards, smarter correlation engines, AI-powered recommendations that still require humans to do the actual work. These approaches aren't solving the problem—they're just giving exhausted analysts more sophisticated tools to manage their burnout.
What We Built Instead
We asked a different question: What if AI agents just did the work?
Not co-pilots. Not chatbots. Not suggestions. The actual investigation, decision-making, and response.
When threats emerge, swarms of specialized 7AI agents instantly mobilize, each handling specific investigative tasks in parallel. They don't follow pre-written playbooks or simple if-then rules. Our Dynamic Reasoning technology enables agents to adapt their investigations based on what they discover, following unexpected leads and making contextual decisions just as a human expert would—but at machine speed.
This closes the loop from detection to resolution in minutes instead of hours, fundamentally changing the economics of cyber defense. In just eight months since general availability, 7AI has saved customers millions in productivity and is projected to save over $100 million in 2025.
What Enterprises Are Seeing in Production
"7AI is faster than our MDR, more accurate, and has found what they missed." — CISO, Software Company
"My analysts get hours back every day. We finally have breathing room." — CISO, Financial Services Company
These aren't beta customers being generous. These are security leaders at enterprises who've seen everything the market has to offer, who have rigorous evaluation processes, who need proof before they commit. They deployed 7AI. They watched it work in production. And now they're advocates.
The skeptics said enterprises would never trust AI with this level of autonomy. The skeptics were wrong. Enterprises weren't waiting for permission—they were waiting for proof.
CRN Stellar Startups: How We're Capitalizing on the Momentum
The Fortune Cyber 60 validates what we're building. The CRN Stellar Startups recognition validates how we're taking it to market.
From day one, we've built 7AI with channel partners at the center of our go-to-market strategy. While some cybersecurity startups try to go direct-only, we recognized something fundamental: the channel isn't just a distribution mechanism—it's how enterprises actually buy and deploy security solutions.
Why CISOs Trust Channel Partners
Most enterprises already work with security service providers and strategic partners who have been advising their security operations for years. These partners have:
Deep customer relationships built over years of consistent delivery
Partners understand their customers' environments, constraints, and priorities. They've earned trust through performance, not just promises.
Technical expertise and integration capabilities
They know how to integrate new solutions into complex existing security stacks without disrupting operations. They handle the technical heavy lifting that internal teams often lack bandwidth to manage.
Proven delivery and support infrastructure
When they need an objective opinion, CISOs want to call someone they trust who will answer. Channel partners provide that continuity and accountability.
Channel as Strategic Advantage, Not Just Distribution
When we partner with channel organizations, we're not disrupting those trusted relationships—we're strengthening them.
Channel partners can now offer their customers agentic security capabilities that were previously impossible. Instead of providing basic alert triage and escalation, they can deliver comprehensive investigations with detailed conclusions and recommended actions—all powered by 7AI agents working behind the scenes.
The result? Partners deliver dramatically better outcomes for their customers, differentiate their services in a competitive market, and scale their operations without proportionally scaling headcount. They move from being reactive alert processors to proactive security advisors.
For 7AI, channel partners accelerate our reach into enterprises faster than we could ever achieve alone. They bring cybersecurity expertise, customer trust, and deployment experience that multiplies our impact.
It's the definition of a win-win-win: customers get better security outcomes, partners deliver more value and differentiation, and 7AI scales faster with higher-quality implementations.
What Comes Next
Every enterprise we talk to is being asked the same question by their board: "What's our AI strategy?" Most security leaders are still trying to figure out where to start, how to prove ROI, how to deploy safely.
We've already answered those questions. Our customers have proof. The Fortune Cyber 60 and CRN Stellar Startups recognitions validate that the market is watching.
The old model of security operations—humans manually investigating every alert, following static playbooks, burning out analysts—isn't just inefficient. It's unsustainable.
AI agents that actually do the work, that adapt and reason and execute autonomously, aren't a nice-to-have. They're how enterprises will operate. And with channel partners who can scale that capability across their customer base, we're positioned to accelerate that transformation.
From launch to the New York Stock Exchange. From first customer to Fortune 500 deployments. From concept to millions in proven productivity savings. From stealth to Fortune Cyber 60 and CRN Stellar Startups recognition.
We're just getting started.
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