Terra Security Named to Rising in Cyber 2026 — CISO-Voted Recognition for Agentic AI-Powered Continuous Penetration Testing
When 150 active CISOs and senior security executives vote on which cybersecurity startups are actually moving the needle in enterprise security, the result is one of the most reliable signals in the market — not a ranking based on revenue multiples or investor brand, but a direct expression of what security teams are adopting to address their most urgent challenges right now. Terra Security, a pioneer in Agentic Offensive Security, has been named to the Rising in Cyber 2026 list — an independent annual initiative by Notable Capital that identifies the 30 most promising private cybersecurity startups, now in its third year.
Terra joins a 2026 cohort that has collectively raised over $6.9 billion according to PitchBook — a group defining the next generation of cybersecurity across identity and access management, agentic AI security, security operations, and application defence. Honorees were recognised at a private event on May 12 at the New York Stock Exchange in San Francisco alongside top security leaders and investors. The recognition follows an exceptional twelve months for Terra — including winning the AWS, CrowdStrike, and NVIDIA Cybersecurity Startup Accelerator in 2025, becoming the first AWS partner to achieve Security Competency for Autonomous Security Validation, and launching the industry's first agentic gateway enabling real-time collaboration between autonomous agents and human pentesters.
"Security is now moving from a constraint to an enabler on how fast AI can actually scale inside the enterprise. The 150 CISOs who voted on this list understand that better than anyone. Congratulations to this year's Rising in Cyber honorees for earning their trust."
— Oren Yunger, Managing Partner, Notable Capital
What Terra Security Does — Agentic AI-Powered Continuous Penetration Testing
Terra Security provides Agentic AI-powered continuous penetration testing aligned to code changes and evolving attack surfaces — combining a swarm of trained AI agents with human supervision for safety and control. The model addresses a structural gap that has widened dramatically as AI-enabled software development accelerates: the speed at which code ships to production has long outpaced the cadence of traditional penetration testing, leaving windows of exposure that adversaries can exploit between scheduled assessments.
Terra's approach changes that equation by making penetration testing continuous — tied to every code change, every new deployment, and every evolution of the attack surface rather than a periodic exercise constrained by consultant availability and budget cycles. The company works with Fortune 500 organisations to ensure every attack surface is covered: web applications, AI systems, internal apps, APIs, mobile, networks, and the cloud — delivering the breadth and velocity of coverage that modern enterprise environments demand.
What distinguishes Terra's architecture is the combination of swarm-based AI agent execution with human pentester oversight. The AI agents handle the volume, velocity, and breadth of coverage that no human team can sustain at continuous scale — while human experts provide the contextual judgment, creative attack chaining, and accountability that enterprise security programmes require. This is not automation replacing skilled practitioners — it is automation amplifying them, enabling a coverage model that was previously economically impossible to sustain.
The Recognition Track Record — AWS First, CrowdStrike, NVIDIA, and Now CISO-Voted
The Rising in Cyber 2026 recognition is the latest in a sequence of industry validations that collectively signal Terra Security's emergence as a defining company in the agentic offensive security category. In 2025, Terra won the AWS, CrowdStrike, and NVIDIA Cybersecurity Startup Accelerator — a programme that identifies the most technically differentiated and commercially compelling security startups across the industry. Terra subsequently became the first AWS partner to achieve Security Competency for Autonomous Security Validation — a designation that validates both the technical depth of the platform and its operational suitability for enterprise environments.
Rising in Cyber 2026 — CISO-Voted Recognition from the Most Demanding Buyers in Security
Unlike analyst rankings or vendor-sponsored awards, Rising in Cyber is determined entirely by votes from 150 active CISOs and senior security executives — the practitioners responsible for enterprise security buying decisions at some of the world's largest organisations. Inclusion is a direct signal that Terra's continuous, agentic penetration testing approach is resonating with the buyers who matter most. The 2026 list was produced in collaboration with Morgan Stanley and draws on CISO survey data and market analysis to map how cybersecurity is evolving in the age of AI agents.
AWS Security Competency — First for Autonomous Security Validation
Terra became the first AWS partner to achieve Security Competency specifically for Autonomous Security Validation — a category that did not exist before Terra helped define it. This designation reflects AWS's validation that Terra's autonomous penetration testing platform meets the highest technical and operational standards for enterprise deployment within AWS environments, and provides the partner-channel credibility that accelerates adoption within the world's largest cloud customer base.
AWS, CrowdStrike & NVIDIA Accelerator Winner — Technical Differentiation Validated by Peers
Winning the joint AWS, CrowdStrike, and NVIDIA Cybersecurity Startup Accelerator in 2025 placed Terra in a select group of startups validated by three of the most influential organisations in enterprise security and AI infrastructure simultaneously. For a company whose value proposition sits at the intersection of AI-driven automation and enterprise-grade offensive security, endorsement from the compute and platform leaders that power that intersection carries particular weight with enterprise buyers evaluating the durability of Terra's technology approach.
First Agentic Gateway — Real-Time Collaboration Between Autonomous Agents and Human Pentesters
Terra's launch of the industry's first agentic gateway enabling real-time collaboration between autonomous agents and human pentesters represents the product architecture breakthrough that the Rising in Cyber CISO voters recognised. The gateway solves the human-machine coordination problem that has prevented truly continuous penetration testing from scaling: by enabling agents and human experts to collaborate in real time, Terra ensures that AI-driven attack execution is always grounded in human judgment, maintaining the safety and accountability that enterprise security programmes require.
The Rising in Cyber 2026 Context — What the CISO Survey Data Reveals
The Rising in Cyber 2026 Report, produced by Notable Capital in collaboration with Morgan Stanley, paints a striking picture of the AI security gap facing enterprise organisations. More than 71% of surveyed CISOs reported that AI agents are already operating in production environments within their organisations — yet only 11% described their existing AI security tools as comprehensive, effective, or best in class. The result is a structural gap that the next generation of cybersecurity startups — including Terra — is now racing to close.
The report also reveals the scale of the M&A surge transforming the cybersecurity landscape: strategic transaction volume reached $81 billion in 2025 — more than four times higher than in 2024 — as technology companies accelerated acquisitions of specialised security capabilities. This consolidation dynamic creates both urgency and opportunity for high-conviction startups like Terra: the window to establish category leadership in agentic offensive security is open, and the recognition from 150 CISOs through the Rising in Cyber process is precisely the kind of market signal that accelerates that window closing in Terra's favour.
71% of organisations have AI agents in production, but only 11% rate their AI security tools as comprehensive — creating the precise attack surface that Terra's continuous agentic penetration testing is designed to cover.
Strategic cybersecurity M&A reached $81B in 2025 — more than 4× higher than 2024 — as enterprises accelerated acquisition of specialised capabilities, creating urgency for category-defining startups to establish leadership positions.
~20% of CISOs identified controlling identities and permissions for AI applications and AI agents as their top security priority — the next critical surface that Terra's agentic offensive security platform covers.
Key Takeaways
Terra Security has been named to the Rising in Cyber 2026 list — selected by 150 active CISOs and senior security executives through Notable Capital's independent annual process — recognising it as one of the 30 most promising private cybersecurity startups in the world, in a cohort that has collectively raised over $6.9 billion.
Terra's platform delivers Agentic AI-powered continuous penetration testing aligned to code changes and evolving attack surfaces — combining a swarm of trained AI agents with human pentester supervision, covering web, AI, internal apps, APIs, mobile, networks, and the cloud for Fortune 500 organisations.
The recognition builds on an exceptional 2025 track record: winning the AWS, CrowdStrike, and NVIDIA Cybersecurity Startup Accelerator, becoming the first AWS partner to achieve Security Competency for Autonomous Security Validation, and launching the industry's first agentic gateway for real-time human-AI pentester collaboration.
The Rising in Cyber 2026 Report — produced with Morgan Stanley — found that 71% of organisations have AI agents in production but only 11% rate their AI security tools as adequate, and cybersecurity M&A hit $81B in 2025 (4× 2024 levels), underscoring both the urgency and the commercial opportunity in the category Terra is defining. Learn more at terra.security and notablecap.com/risingincyber.
The Rising in Cyber 2026 recognition matters because of who is doing the recognising. When 150 CISOs — the people responsible for enterprise security budgets, buying decisions, and operational outcomes at some of the world's most complex organisations — vote on which startups are actually moving the needle, it is the clearest available signal of product-market fit in the security market. For Terra Security, that signal arrives at a moment when the gap between AI agent adoption and AI security maturity is wider than it has ever been — and when the company's continuous, agentic, human-supervised approach to penetration testing is precisely what the market needs and is now choosing.
To learn more about Terra's agentic offensive security platform, visit terra.security. To explore the Rising in Cyber 2026 list and report, visit notablecap.com/risingincyber.