> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.cybrsecmedia.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Astelia wins CYBR.SEC.CON 2026 LaunchPad competition - URL: https://www.cybrsecmedia.com/astelia-wins-cybr-sec-con-2026-launchpad-competition/ - Published: 2026-09-15T22:35:48.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-15T22:35:48.000Z - Description: The exposure management startup beat four other early-stage cybersecurity companies at CYBR.SEC.CON 2026, pitching an approach that focuses remediation on vulnerabilities attackers can actually reach. - Author: Bill Brenner - Tags: LaunchPad, CYBR.SEC.CON, Article HOUSTON — Astelia has won the inaugural CYBR.SEC.CON 2026 LaunchPad competition, emerging from a field of five early-stage cybersecurity companies pitching their technology before security practitioners, CISOs, investors and business leaders. The competition, held Tuesday during CYBR.SEC.CON 2026 in Houston, put the finalists through something more demanding than the typical startup pitch. **Full Coverage of CYBR.SEC.CON:** [CYBR.SEC.CON 2026: News, Speakers, Agenda & CoverageFollow CYBR.SEC.CON. 2026 in Houston with the latest news, speakers, keynotes, agenda, cybersecurity tracks, AI.SEC.CON. highlights, interviews and event coverage.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ab/67/ab676516-71e3-473d-8f73-9e0692f5aaee/content/images/icon/CYBR.SEC.Media-Logo-copy-bf719c4f-4ff3-483c-9951-1eb0965c823b.jpg)CYBR.SEC.MediaBill Brenner![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/ab/67/ab676516-71e3-473d-8f73-9e0692f5aaee/content/images/thumbnail/42601a79-4e56-4e1b-8342-c02f537cefcd-3f0c1271-eb79-4325-b61b-d5c93cac7b10.png)](https://www.cybrsecmedia.com/cybr-sec-con-2026-news-speakers-agenda-and-coverage/) Above Security, Astelia, MokN, Singulr AI and VisionHeight each had to make the case that they weren't simply bringing another cybersecurity product into an already crowded market. They had to demonstrate that they were solving a problem practitioners actually have — and that they had the technology, differentiation and business model to turn that solution into a sustainable company. Astelia came out on top. [Subscribe to the CYBR.SEC.Media newsletter](#/portal/signup/free) ## From Israel's National Red Team to exposure management Astelia was founded by veterans and former leaders of Israel's National Red Team, including co-founder and CEO Alon Noy, CTO Nadav Ostrovsky and CPO Roy Rajwan. The company announced $35 million in combined seed and Series A funding in February, led by Index Ventures and Team8. The company's premise is deceptively simple: Security teams don't necessarily need another way to rank vulnerabilities. They need to know which vulnerabilities attackers can actually reach. Astelia maps an organization's network topology to build a model of how assets connect and where an attacker could realistically move through the environment. Its AI-native exposure management technology then focuses remediation on vulnerabilities that are reachable and exploitable rather than treating every vulnerability as an equally urgent problem. That distinction formed the heart of Astelia's argument going into LaunchPad. When CYBR.SEC.Media spoke with Noy ahead of the competition, he challenged one of the basic assumptions underpinning modern vulnerability management. The industry has spent years trying to get better at prioritization. Astelia argues that's the wrong problem to solve. ## Three million vulnerabilities. Thirty-two that mattered. The scale of the problem becomes clearer inside large enterprises. In its pre-LaunchPad conversation with CYBR.SEC.Media, Astelia pointed to global telecommunications company Syniverse as an example. Its environment contained roughly 3 million vulnerabilities. Traditional vulnerability management leaves security teams trying to determine which findings deserve attention first. Astelia's analysis narrowed that universe to 32 vulnerabilities requiring immediate attention based on whether they were actually reachable within the environment. That's a radically different proposition from making a list of 3 million vulnerabilities slightly easier to sort. It also reflects the offensive-security experience behind the company. Noy spent more than 15 years in Israeli cyber units, including leading the country's National Red Team. From an attacker's perspective, a vulnerability existing somewhere in an enterprise doesn't necessarily make it useful. Attackers care about whether they can get to it, exploit it and use it as part of a path toward something valuable. Astelia is trying to give defenders that same view. Instead of asking, "How dangerous is this vulnerability in theory?" the more useful question becomes, "Can an attacker actually reach it in my environment?" ## Five startups, five very different security problems Astelia's win came against four companies attacking very different pieces of the cybersecurity problem. Above Security is using AI-driven behavioral analysis and employee coaching to address insider risk. MokN is attempting to identify stolen credentials while attackers are actively using them rather than waiting for those credentials to surface through traditional dark-web monitoring. Singulr AI is building runtime governance and security controls around enterprise AI and AI agents. VisionHeight is developing a pre-attack intelligence layer designed to feed external threat information into increasingly AI-driven security operations. The five finalists pitched before a judging panel representing several sides of the cybersecurity business, including CISOs, investors, marketing executives and revenue leaders. Judges evaluated the companies on the problem they were solving, the strength of their technology, market opportunity, differentiation and their ability to turn the idea into a sustainable cybersecurity business. LaunchPad was designed to test more than whether founders could deliver a compelling pitch or demonstrate interesting technology. It put startups in front of people who buy security technology, operate it, invest in it and ultimately have to figure out how to bring it to market. ## Cutting through cybersecurity's startup noise The competition also reflects a larger challenge confronting both security startups and the CISOs they hope to reach. Cybersecurity doesn't have a shortage of new companies or new technology. It has a discovery problem. CISOs are being inundated with vendors while startups are fighting for attention in a market increasingly crowded with similar claims — particularly as AI accelerates the creation of new security products and categories. That problem helped drive the partnership between CYBR.SEC.Community and LaunchPoint Collective, which brought more than 20 emerging cybersecurity companies into the CYBR.SEC.CON ecosystem this year through booths, presentations, events and LaunchPad. The idea is to put emerging technology closer to the practitioners and security leaders who can determine whether it solves a meaningful problem. Five companies got the chance to make that case on the LaunchPad stage. Astelia made the case that vulnerability management has spent too much time trying to decide what defenders should fix first — when the more important question is what attackers can actually reach. At the inaugural CYBR.SEC.CON LaunchPad, that argument carried the day. 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