What Virsec does

Virsec Systems Inc. is a privately held cybersecurity company founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Jose, California, that develops OTTOGUARD.AI, an autonomous workload protection platform designed to mitigate known and unknown vulnerabilities, ransomware, and zero-day attacks at runtime without requiring patching. The platform is built on the company's patented Default-Deny-Allow-On-Trust zero-trust technology, which applies deterministic enforcement at the workload level, mapping verified application behavior and blocking any deviation in milliseconds. Architecture components include runtime protection, lockdown mode, autonomous application control, just-in-time access, memory protection, and continuous file system monitoring, with agentic AI layered on to automate deployment, configuration, integration, and remediation workflows rather than to perform threat detection.

The company distributes OTTOGUARD.AI through a direct enterprise field sales motion with both SaaS and On-Premise deployment options, targeting large organizations across healthcare, financial services, energy and oil and gas, manufacturing, and government and defense verticals. Its primary customer segments include large enterprises with complex IT environments, organizations running legacy or end-of-life software that cannot be patched, and government agencies and defense contractors with high-security workload requirements. The platform integrates with ITSM tools such as ServiceNow, vulnerability scanners, and asset management platforms via API, supporting 24x7x365 Service Assurance across North America, EMEA, and Asia Pacific.

Virsec generates revenue through software licensing and subscription agreements, with no publicly disclosed pricing tiers — pricing is quote-based and tailored to enterprise deployments. The company has raised approximately $137.4 million in disclosed funding across multiple rounds, with the largest being a $100 million Series C in July 2021 led by BlueIO, with additional participation from Artiman Ventures, JC2 Ventures, Marker Hill Capital, and former government officials. As of late 2025, the company employs 101-250 people and is led by CEO Simone Sassoli and CTO and Co-Founder Satya Gupta, who holds over 40 patents in firmware and systems architecture.

Name

Virsec

Legal name

Virsec Systems Inc.

Website

https://virsec.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Virsec Systems Inc. is a privately held cybersecurity company that offers OTTOGUARD.AI, a zero-trust runtime workload protection platform delivering patchless vulnerability mitigation, ransomware prevention, and legacy software protection for large enterprises, government agencies, and defense contractors globally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Runtime Workload Protection and Application Self-Protection

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210), Security Systems Services (56162)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Secure Model Deployment & Runtime Protection (sandboxing, isolation) (HDAAAKAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Control System Cybersecurity for OT (ICS Security, Monitoring, Hardening) (IMAGABAL), Identity, Access & Secrets Management for AI Systems (IAM for agents/models) (HDAAAKAJ)

Keywords

• Runtime workload protection
• Zero-trust cybersecurity
• Patchless vulnerability mitigation
• Runtime application self-protection
• Ransomware prevention platform

Headquarters

HQ city

San Jose

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Software License and Subscription: The company operates on a software licensing model with subscription fees. According to the EULA, licenses are granted for specific terms with fees, and Virsec provides both SaaS and On-Premise software deployment options with associated support and maintenance services.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Virsec sells the OTTOGUARD.AI platform, which autonomously protects enterprise workloads at runtime using patented zero-trust technology, blocking known and unknown attacks without requiring patching. The platform is offered as licensed software with subscription, SaaS, and on-premise deployment options, and includes Vulnerability Mitigation, Ransomware Protection, and Legacy Software Protection sub-solutions targeted at large enterprises, government agencies, and defense contractors.

Product overview

Virsec offers a unified platform architecture centered on OTTOGUARD.AI, its core autonomous workload protection product. The platform provides patchless vulnerability mitigation through a modular approach with three integrated solution components: Vulnerability Mitigation for blocking exploitation of known and unknown vulnerabilities without patching; Ransomware Protection for preventing malware and zero-day attacks at runtime; and Legacy Software Protection for securing end-of-life and unpatchable systems. OTTOGUARD.AI delivers runtime protection using patented zero-trust technology that enforces default-deny, allow-on-trust policies, autonomous application control, and just-in-time access management—all unified within a single platform with API-based integration capabilities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• OTTOGUARD.AI: Autonomous workload protection platform that provides patchless vulnerability mitigation, ransomware prevention, and software supply chain security.

Products and services

• OTTOGUARD.AI OTTOGUARD.AI is Virsec's flagship autonomous workload protection platform that eliminates the need for constant patch management by using patented zero trust technology to instantly neutralize both known and zero-day threats at runtime without patching, delivering true zero Mean Time to Remediate (MTTR). It is targeted at large enterprises, government agencies, and defense contractors.
• Vulnerability Mitigation Vulnerability Mitigation is a sub-solution of OTTOGUARD.AI that enables autonomous patchless mitigation of 90% of critical vulnerabilities independently of patching speed, human intervention, staff skills, approval chains, forced downtimes, and resource constraints, for large enterprise security teams.
• Ransomware Protection Ransomware Protection is a sub-solution of OTTOGUARD.AI that prevents ransomware, malware, and zero-day attacks from exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities, blocking threats in milliseconds with zero dwell time and zero downtime for enterprise and government customers.
• Legacy Software Protection Legacy Software Protection is a sub-solution of OTTOGUARD.AI that autonomously protects end-of-life and unpatchable software from evolving threats through compensating controls, continuous monitoring, and restricted access identities without patching, for organizations with legacy IT and OT systems.

Quantifiable outcome

• 90% reduction in critical vulnerabilities mitigated without patching
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability4 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Major Defense ContractorscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerVirsec has built close partnerships with major defense contractors for securing critical defense infrastructure and sensitive government systems.
• Government AgenciescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEstablished partnerships with government agencies for protecting government systems and critical infrastructure through Virsec's workload security solutions.
• Technology and Security Integration PartnerscoreTechnology or IntegrationOttoguard.AI integrates with existing incident response, asset management, vulnerability, and ticketing tools. The platform connects with customer scanners, asset management platforms, and ITSM solutions like ServiceNow for automated remediation workflows.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• CrowdStrike: CrowdStrike's Falcon platform spans endpoint, cloud workload, identity, and runtime exploit prevention. Its broader scope, scale, and channel reach overlap directly with Virsec's runtime-workload protection thesis, though CrowdStrike sells a far wider portfolio of modules.
• Palo Alto Networks: Palo Alto's Cortex XDR/XSIAM portfolio offers endpoint, cloud workload, and runtime exploit prevention at scale. It is the broadest incumbent peer, addressing many of the same SOC and exposure-management pain points Virsec targets.
• Microsoft Defender for Cloud: Microsoft Defender bundles endpoint, cloud workload, and runtime exploit protection into the broader Microsoft security stack. Its enterprise reach, bundling economics, and incumbent relationships make it the dominant competitive force Virsec must displace.
• Trend Micro: Trend Micro offers endpoint, server, and workload security across hybrid environments, including virtual patching and exploit-blocking capabilities. It is a long-standing incumbent competing for the same enterprise and government security spend as Virsec.

Direct peers

• SentinelOne: SentinelOne's Singularity platform provides autonomous endpoint and workload protection driven by behavioral AI. Like Virsec, it markets self-protection and minimal human-in-the-loop remediation, and competes for similar enterprise runtime-security budgets.
• Morphisec: Morphisec uses moving-target defense and deterministic prevention to block advanced threats on endpoints and workloads. It is the closest philosophical peer to Virsec's signature-free, deterministic default-deny approach and targets similar enterprise customers.
• Cybereason: Cybereason's XDR and endpoint protection platform focuses on autonomous detection, prevention, and response across endpoints and workloads. It targets similar enterprise and government accounts and competes for the same autonomous-runtime-security narrative.

Emerging players

• Darktrace: Darktrace applies self-learning AI to detect and respond to threats across endpoints, cloud, and OT environments. It is comparable as an emerging, AI-led autonomous security platform pursuing adjacent use cases to Virsec's runtime workload protection.
• Aqua Security: Aqua Security protects cloud-native workloads, containers, and serverless functions with runtime defense. It overlaps with Virsec's workload-protection thesis in cloud and modern infrastructure environments, particularly for SaaS and SaaS-adjacent customers.
• Contrast Security: Contrast Security provides runtime application self-protection (RASP) and security instrumentation for custom applications. It is comparable to Virsec's runtime protection layer for application-level exploits and untrusted code blocking.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/virsecsystems
• Facebookfacebook.com/virsecsystems
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/virsec-systems

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles15 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds5 records

Investors14 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Virsec