![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/240129_FastCompany_Vanta_0188_h-2-e1777395974109.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Most corporate employees in America have likely signed up for ChatGPT. And Claude. And possibly Cursor. Their employer\u2019s security team has no idea\u2014or even if they do, they can\u2019t keep up. This paradox is why Vanta is having a blockbuster year.<\/p>\n
The San Francisco-based security and compliance company has crossed $300 million in annual recurring revenue, Fortune<\/em> exclusively learned. This milestone represents a tripling of ARR in two years. Vanta\u2019s customer growth rate has also accelerated to roughly 60% year-over-year\u2014a number that has gone up in each of the past four quarters, the company said. Sources with knowledge of Vanta\u2019s balance sheet say that its net revenue retention (NRR) has similarly increased every quarter for the last 2 years and continues to be over 100 percent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Vanta now serves more than 16,000 customers, including Snowflake, Atlassian, Duolingo, Ramp, Cursor, and Harvey.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s success stands firmly against the backdrop of its last public valuation in July 2025: $4.15 billion. At the time, Wellington Management led a $150 million Series D alongside Sequoia, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, J.P. Morgan, Craft Ventures, Y Combinator, Atlassian Ventures, and CrowdStrike Ventures. Vanta has raised more than $500 million since CEO Christina Cacioppo and engineer Erik Goldman founded the company out of Y Combinator in 2018. Cacioppo\u2014who taught herself to code from books before writing Vanta\u2019s first prototype\u2014now oversees roughly 1,000 employees.<\/p>\n What\u2019s pulling the curve up is a problem that didn\u2019t exist at scale 24 months ago. Vanta\u2019s own data, drawn from its third-party risk management product and released in a recent report, found that 70% of companies now have shadow AI\u2014tools employees adopted without security review. The company also reported that LLMs are 52% more likely to be flagged as critical risk than traditional SaaS. In a single year, the average company sees employees reinstall an AI tool 1,000 times after security has revoked it. The most-reinstalled offenders, per Vanta: Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s this push-pull going on at an actually really broad scale,\u201d Cacioppo told Fortune<\/em>, describing executives demanding AI transformation while security teams scramble to assess what\u2019s already on the network. The fix, she argues, is continuous monitoring.<\/p>\n \u201cAI is exciting, but also scary and risky,\u201d Cacioppo said. \u201cIt\u2019s that combination of new, quickly growing AI hyperscalers with more risk and more scrutiny that is letting Vanta\u2019s growth rate actually increase year over year.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, the $65.2 billion governance, risk, and compliance field is watching a category leader extend its lead. As for the inevitable IPO question, Cacioppo demurred: \u201cThe goal is the long-term sustainable company versus the day of confetti.\u201d<\/p>\n See you tomorrow,<\/p>\n Lily Mae Lazarus Joey Abrams curated the deals section of today\u2019s newsletter<\/em>.<\/em> Subscribe here.<\/p>\n – <\/span>True<\/b> Anomaly<\/b>, a Centennial, Colo.-based developer of space technology, raised $650 million in Series D funding. <\/span>Eclipse<\/b> and <\/span>Riot<\/b> Ventures<\/b> led the round and were joined by <\/span>Paradigm<\/b>,? <\/span>Atreides<\/b>,?<\/span>G Squared<\/b>, <\/span>The<\/b> Private<\/b> Shares<\/b> Fund<\/b>, <\/span>VanEck<\/b>, and others.<\/span><\/p>\n –\u00a0 <\/span>Golden<\/b> Child<\/b>, a Miami, Fla.-based dog food company, raised $37 million in funding from <\/span>Atomic<\/b>,<\/span> A*<\/b>, and <\/span>Redpoint<\/b> Ventures<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Fence<\/b>, a New York City-based developer of internet-native infrastructure for debt capital markets, raised $20 million in funding. <\/span>Galaxy<\/b> Ventures<\/b> led the round and was joined by existing investors <\/span>ParaFi<\/b> Capital<\/b> and <\/span>Crane<\/b> Venture<\/b> Partners<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Windmill<\/b>, a New York City-based AI-powered performance review platform, raised $12 million in funding. <\/span>Inspired<\/b> Capital<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>Primary<\/b> Venture<\/b> Partners<\/b>, <\/span>Founder<\/b> Collective<\/b>, and <\/span>Oceans<\/b> Ventures<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Redpine<\/b>, a Stockholm, Sweden-based knowledge layer for agentic AI, raised \u20ac6.8 million ($8 million) in seed funding. <\/span>NordicNinja<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>Luminar<\/b> Ventures<\/b>, <\/span>node.vc<\/b>, and angel investors.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Dex<\/b>, a London, U.K.-based AI talent agent, raised $5.3 million in seed funding. <\/span>Notion<\/b> Capital<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>a16z<\/b> Speedrun<\/b>, <\/span>Concept<\/b> Ventures<\/b> 2100<\/b>, and angel investors.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Betterness<\/b>, a Miami, Fla.-based developer of autonomous AI agents for personalized wellness, raised $2.5 million in seed funding from <\/span>Martin<\/b> Varsavsky<\/b>, <\/span>Justin<\/b> Stone<\/b>, and others.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Tapaya<\/b>, a Prague, Czech Republic-based payments infrastructure startup, raised \u20ac1 million ($1.18 million) in pre-seed funding. <\/span>Passion<\/b> Capital<\/b> and <\/span>Depo<\/b> Ventures<\/b> led the round and were joined by <\/span>BADideas.fund<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Artemis<\/b> acquired <\/span>Optikos<\/b>, a Wakefield, Mass.-based optical technologies company. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>ClearCourse<\/b>, backed by <\/span>Aquiline<\/b>, acquired <\/span>Kurve<\/b>, a Newport, Wales-based developer of self-service kiosk technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Superior<\/b> Health<\/b> Partners<\/b>, a portfolio company of <\/span>Renovus<\/b> Capital<\/b> Partners<\/b>, acquired <\/span>Chant Healthcare<\/b>, a Stigler, Okla.-based provider of home health, home care, and hospice services operating through <\/span>Compassion<\/b> Homecare<\/b> and <\/span>Sans<\/b> Bois<\/b> Hospice<\/b>. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Valor<\/b> Exterior<\/b> Partners<\/b>, a portfolio company of <\/span>Osceola<\/b> Capital<\/b>, acquired <\/span>Associate<\/b> Roofing<\/b>, a Braintree, Mass.-based exterior home services company. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Acron<\/b> Technologies<\/b> acquired <\/span>Sightline<\/b> Intelligence<\/b>, a Portland, Ore.-based video processing and AI-powered defense solutions company, from <\/span>Artemis<\/b> Capital<\/b> Partners<\/b>. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Protective<\/b> Life<\/b> Corporation<\/b> agreed to acquire <\/span>Obsidian<\/b> Insurance<\/b> Holdings<\/b>, a New York City-based property, casualty, and specialty insurance platform, from <\/span>Genstar<\/b> Capital<\/b>. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>InTandem<\/b> Capital<\/b> Partners<\/b>, a New York City-based private equity firm, appointed <\/span>Elliot<\/b> Cooperstone<\/b> CEO and managing partner, <\/span>Brad<\/b> Coppens<\/b> president and managing partner, <\/span>Chris<\/b> Reef<\/b> to partner, <\/span>Aaron<\/b> Newman<\/b> as principal, <\/span>Lauren<\/b> Mangino<\/b> to managing director, and <\/span>Jackson<\/b> Monnin<\/b> to vice president.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Exclusive #Vanta #hits #million #ARR #shadow #explodes #corporate #America<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most corporate employees in America have likely signed up for ChatGPT. And Claude. And possibly Cursor. Their employer\u2019s security team has no idea\u2014or even if they do, they can\u2019t keep… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[867,367,957,866,958,337,959,562,968,966,573,735,960,967,961,962,963,964,965,568],"class_list":["post-760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-america","tag-arr","tag-compliance","tag-corporate","tag-corporate-governance","tag-cyber","tag-data-security","tag-exclusive","tag-explodes","tag-hits","tag-million","tag-openai","tag-private-equity","tag-shadow","tag-snowflake-computing","tag-start-up","tag-term-sheet","tag-unicorns","tag-vanta","tag-venture-capital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gw.adampg777.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
X:<\/strong> @LilyMaeLazarus
Email:<\/strong> lily.lazarus@fortune.com
Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here.<\/p>\nVENTURE CAPITAL<\/h3>\n
PRIVATE EQUITY<\/h3>\n
EXITS<\/h3>\n
PEOPLE<\/h3>\n