runZero is an Austin-based cybersecurity firm that has established itself as a leader in the Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) space. Since its founding, the company has pivoted from a pure network discovery tool to a comprehensive exposure management platform. runZero is built on the philosophy that effective security begins with absolute visibility. It targets the 'hidden' attack surface—unmanaged IoT, shadow IT, and legacy OT systems—that traditional agent-based solutions fail to see. The company's strategic vision involves unifying internal discovery, external attack surface management, and vulnerability correlation into a single, high-fidelity source of truth. By 2024, runZero had reached a critical market position, being recognized as a Customers' Choice in Gartner Peer Insights and serving over 500 enterprise customers across high-tech, finance, manufacturing, and government sectors.
The company was founded in 2018 as Rumble Network Discovery by HD Moore and Chris Kirsch. HD Moore, widely recognized for creating the Metasploit Project—the world's most used penetration testing framework—brought decades of applied security research to the venture. His core vision was to build a modern active discovery solution that could identify everything on a network safely and accurately without the friction of credentials. Chris Kirsch, serving as CEO, brought a strong background in cybersecurity marketing and strategy from his time at Rapid7 and Veracode. The early days were marked by a commitment to the security community, launching a free 'Starter Edition' in 2020 that gained immediate traction among researchers. In 2022, the company rebranded to runZero to reflect its broader mission of achieving 'zero' unknown assets and exposures.
runZero has raised a total of $20 million through two primary venture capital rounds. The company secured a $5 million Seed round on March 16, 2021, led by Decibel Partners with participation from Jon Oberheide (Duo Security co-founder) and other notable security veterans. Following explosive growth, runZero announced a $15 million Series A round on March 14, 2022. This round was again led by Decibel Partners, with a 'who's who' of cybersecurity investors participating, including founders and executives from Duo Security, Signal Sciences, Demisto, and ServiceNow. Notable individual investors include Gordon Lyon (the creator of Nmap). These funds have been strategically deployed to expand the engineering team, particularly in the development of OT discovery and advanced fingerprinting, and to scale the global go-to-market organization.
The primary offering is the runZero Platform, which is available via SaaS or as a self-hosted installation. The architecture centers on 'Explorers'—lightweight, cross-platform scan engines that can be deployed on Windows, Linux, macOS, or BSD. These Explorers perform the heavy lifting of active discovery, passive traffic sampling, and integration data collection. Complementing the Platform is the 'runZero Scanner,' a standalone command-line tool for offline or manual assessments. For larger organizations, runZero offers 'Organizations' for data isolation and 'Projects' for time-bound assessments. The platform also includes a specialized 'Certificate Inventory' module and 'Risk Findings', which automate the identification of critical misconfigurations. Target use cases span from M&A asset discovery and CMDB cleanup to continuous compliance and vulnerability management prioritization.
runZero has rapidly expanded from its North American roots to a global footprint. While headquarters remain in Austin, Texas, the company operates as a remote-first organization, allowing it to hire top security talent across the United States. Geographically, approximately 20% of its customer base is located in Europe, supported by a dedicated data center in Germany launched in 2024 to ensure GDPR compliance and data residency. In the Middle East, runZero established a strategic partnership with AmiViz in 2024, a major cybersecurity distributor in Dubai, to serve the GCC region. This partnership provides localized sales and support for enterprises in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. The company has also launched an international partner program, 'Infinity,' which includes distributors and resellers in APAC (Australia, New Zealand) and additional European markets like Italy and the UK.
Recent product evolution (2023-2025) has seen runZero transition into a full Exposure Management solution. Major releases include 'Risk Findings,' which provides a curated, actionable list of exposures like network bridges and unauthenticated databases. In 2024, runZero launched a major integration with Wiz, allowing cloud-first organizations to unify their cloud-native security data with runZero's on-prem discovery. Other significant additions include 'Goal Tracking' for measurable security outcomes, 'Certificate Inventory' for managing TLS/SSH lifecycle, and 'Passive Discovery' capabilities specifically tuned for sensitive OT environments. The platform also introduced 'Inside-Out ASM,' which uncovers internal assets unintentionally exposed to the internet. Most recently, the release of version 4.0 brought a customizable dashboard system with advanced visualization widgets and enhanced search capabilities for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEV).
runZero's culture is defined by its 'Yeti' mascot, Zeti, and a philosophy that prioritizes kindness, transparency, and data-driven decision-making. As a 100% remote company, they emphasize 'building culture the right way' through open dialogue and asynchronous communication. Their values—'Kind and Fair,' 'Value Transparency,' 'Make Sound Decisions,' and 'Foster Mindful Growth'—are not just slogans but integrated into their hiring and performance processes. The company is vocal about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), actively hiring from unconventional backgrounds and emphasizing aptitude over traditional pedigree. They maintain a 'Customer First' mindset, which includes being honest about when runZero might not be the right fit for a prospect. Employee spotlights and cultural blog posts show a highly engaged workforce that values work-life balance and psychological safety.
Community engagement is deeply rooted in runZero's DNA, largely due to HD Moore's legacy with Metasploit. The company maintains a high-utility free 'Community Edition' used by over 30,000 security researchers, bug bounty hunters, and small businesses worldwide. They host the 'runZero Hour' monthly webcast, where the research team shares findings on emerging threats, IoT vulnerabilities, and network discovery techniques. runZero also contributes back to the community through a public GitHub repository of custom integrations and fingerprints. They are active participants in major security conferences like Black Hat and DEF CON. Furthermore, they support university researchers and non-profits with discounted or free licenses, fostering a global ecosystem of users who provide continuous feedback and contribute to the platform's library of nearly 1,000 asset fingerprints.
runZero
By runZero, Inc.
