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Cohesity

Category: AI in Cybersecurity

Cohesity is an AI-powered data security and management company that provides a unified platform for data protection, cyber resilience, and AI-driven data insights for enterprises. Cohesity was founded in 2013. The company is led by Sanjay Poonen. Based in Santa Clara, California, United States. Team size: 6000+. Total funding raised: $810.0M. Key investors include SoftBank Vision Fund; Sequoia Capital; GV (Google Ventures); Haveli Investments; IBM; NVIDIA; DFJ Growth; Coatue; Sapphire Ventures; Foundation Capital; Wing Venture Capital; Greenspring Associates; Cisco Investments; Battery Ventures; Accel; Morgan Stanley; Baillie Gifford.

Founded
2013
Headquarters
Santa Clara, California, United States
Team size
6000+
Total funding
$810.0M

Value proposition

Cohesity provides a unified AI-powered data security and management platform that protects, secures, and unlocks insights from enterprise data across on-premises, cloud, and SaaS environments, with Zero Trust security and advanced AI/ML capabilities.

Products and solutions

Cohesity Data Cloud (unified platform); DataProtect (backup & recovery); Helios (SaaS management console); FortKnox (air-gapped cyber vault); Gaia (AI-powered conversational search assistant); SmartFiles (unstructured data management); DataHawk (data security posture management); SiteContinuity (disaster recovery); DataGovern (data security & governance); Cohesity Marketplace

Unique value

Cohesity is the only platform combining enterprise-grade data protection, cyber resilience (air-gapped vaulting, ransomware anomaly detection), and AI-powered data insights (Cohesity Gaia conversational search) on a single, scale-out architecture — trusted by 70% of the Global 500.

Target customer

Large enterprises, mid-size businesses, and government organizations across financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, legal, energy, telecom, and technology sectors

Industries served

Financial services; Healthcare and life sciences; Manufacturing and logistics; Federal government; State and local government; Retail and hospitality; Legal; Energy and utilities; Telecom; Technology; Media and entertainment

Technology advantage

Scale-out hyperconverged architecture; AI/ML-powered anomaly detection for ransomware; Cohesity Gaia with RAG and LLM integration (NVIDIA NIM, NVIDIA AI Enterprise); Zero Trust security model; 200+ exabytes of data protected; 2x R&D of nearest competitor; Broadest workload coverage (1000+ workloads across on-prem, multi-cloud, SaaS)

How they differentiate

Cohesity differentiates through its unified platform combining data protection, cyber resilience, and AI-powered data insights in a single architecture. After the Veritas merger, it became the #1 data protection provider by market share with the broadest workload support. Its AI capabilities (Gaia) are built directly into the data platform, enabling enterprises to run conversational AI on their backup data — a unique capability not offered by competitors Rubrik, Veeam, or Commvault.

Main competitors

Rubrik (public, Zero Trust Data Security); Veeam (backup & recovery, strong mid-market); Commvault (enterprise data protection)

Key partnerships

HPE (strategic alliance, resells HPE Zerto); NVIDIA (collaboration on AI, NVIDIA AI Enterprise integration, investment); IBM (strategic partnership, investment); AWS (Strategic Collaboration Agreement, Advanced Technology Partner); Google Cloud (deep integration, FortKnox on GCP); Microsoft Azure (data protection integration); Cisco (Cohesity Gaia on Cisco AI PODs); Rackspace Technology (managed backup and recovery)

Notable customers

85+ of Fortune 100; ~70% of Global 500; 13,000+ enterprise customers including Nasdaq, Bethany Children's Health Center, Conagra, Palo Alto Networks

Major milestones

2013: Founded by Mohit Aron (ex-Google, co-founder of Nutanix); 2015: Launched publicly with DataPlatform and DataProtect; 2018: $250M Series D led by SoftBank at $2.5B valuation; 2021: Confidentially filed for IPO; 2022: Sanjay Poonen appointed CEO; 2024: $150M Series F with IBM and NVIDIA; 2024: Completed $3B acquisition of Veritas' enterprise data protection business, becoming #1 in market share; 2024: Crossed $1.5B+ annual revenue; 2025: Launched Cohesity Gaia AI conversational search; 2026: Expanded HPE strategic alliance

Growth metrics

$1.7B revenue (FY2024 pro forma); $1.5B ARR; 28% adjusted cash EBITDA margin; 13,000+ customers; 200+ exabytes of data protected; 6,000+ employees

Market positioning

Market leader — #1 in data protection software market share after the Veritas merger (Dec 2024). Fastest company in data protection to cross $1.5B+ annual revenue. Trusted by 12,000+ enterprise customers including 85+ of Fortune 100 and ~70% of Global 500. Valued at $7B+ post-Veritas merger.

Geographic focus

Global — headquarters in Santa Clara, CA with offices in India and Ireland. Serves customers across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East.

Patents and IP

Patent-pending AI capabilities in Cohesity Gaia; Sanjay Poonen holds two patents

About Sanjay Poonen

Ex-COO at VMware (doubled revenue from ~$6B to $12B); Ex-President at SAP (led Applications, Industries, Platform); Software Engineer at Microsoft and Apple. MBA from Harvard Business School (Baker Scholar), MS from Stanford, BS from Dartmouth (summa cum laude). Board member of Philips and Snyk.

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