ProjectDiscovery has been named to the Rising in Cyber 2026 list, an annual ranking of 30 private cybersecurity startups selected by 150 active chief information security officers (CISOs) and senior security executives. The list, published by Notable Capital, identifies companies driving innovation in enterprise security, particularly in areas such as identity and access management, agentic AI security, security operations, and application defense. This year’s cohort has collectively raised over $6.9 billion, according to PitchBook.
Overview
Rising in Cyber is now in its third year and has become a benchmark for identifying startups with real traction among security practitioners. Unlike analyst-driven rankings, the list relies exclusively on votes from CISOs who evaluate vendors based on actual deployment and impact within their organizations. The 2026 list was released alongside the Rising in Cyber 2026 Report, a joint publication by Notable Capital and Morgan Stanley that analyzes CISO survey data and market trends, including the role of AI agents in reshaping security operations and recent M&A activity.
ProjectDiscovery was recognized for its contributions to autonomous security testing and AI-driven vulnerability detection. The company’s inclusion reflects growing industry reliance on open-source tooling enhanced with automation and AI capabilities.
What it does
ProjectDiscovery’s open-source tools—Nuclei, Subfinder, Httpx, and Naabu—are widely used by offensive and defensive security teams for attack surface mapping and vulnerability identification. These tools have amassed over 124,000 GitHub stars and are used by more than 100,000 practitioners globally. Nuclei alone has powered over 10 billion vulnerability scans.
Building on this foundation, ProjectDiscovery launched Neo, an AI-powered platform that unifies static application security testing (SAST), dynamic application security testing (DAST), and automated penetration testing. Neo transforms manual open-source workflows into autonomous, enterprise-scale security testing operations, enabling teams to not only detect but also verify and prioritize remediation of vulnerabilities.
The company is a winner of the RSAC Innovation Sandbox 2025 and received a Black Hat Asia award in 2025.
Tradeoffs
While ProjectDiscovery’s open-source tools offer flexibility and broad community support, enterprise adoption requires transitioning to Neo for scalability, automation, and integration with CI/CD pipelines. Organizations relying solely on community-maintained templates may face challenges in maintaining coverage and accuracy without active contribution or commercial support. Additionally, the shift to agentic security models introduces complexity in auditability and control, which some security teams may need to evaluate carefully.
When to use it
ProjectDiscovery’s tools are best suited for security teams already using or familiar with open-source reconnaissance and scanning utilities. Organizations seeking to automate repetitive security testing tasks at scale should evaluate Neo, especially if they operate in environments with large, dynamic attack surfaces. The platform is particularly relevant for teams integrating security into DevOps workflows and those adopting AI-driven tooling for proactive threat detection.
The Rising in Cyber 2026 list is available at notablecap.com/risingincyber. ProjectDiscovery’s tools and platform can be explored at projectdiscovery.io.