Zscaler, Inc.
Company History
Zscaler History: Founding, Growth & Key Milestones
Founded 2007 in San Jose, California, United States
When was Zscaler founded?
Zscaler was founded in 2007 in San Jose, California, United States by Jay Chaudhry and K. Kailash, making it 19 years old.
- Founded
- 2007
- Founding place
- San Jose, California, United States
- Founders
- Jay Chaudhry and K. Kailash
- Headquarters today
- San Jose, California, United States
- Milestones documented
- 12 (2007–2026)
- Current CEO
- Jay Chaudhry
- Acquisitions
- 4
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2007 | Zscaler founded |
| 2012 | Lightspeed Investment |
| 2015 | $1 Billion Valuation |
| 2018 | Nasdaq IPO |
| 2020 | Cloudneeti and Edgewise Acquired |
| 2021 | Smokescreen and Trustdome Acquired |
| 2022 | ShiftRight Acquired |
| 2023 | Acquired Canonic Security |
| 2024 | Avalor and Airgap acquisitions |
| 2025 | Red Canary acquisition |
| 2026 | Fiscal 2026 revenue reaches $3.353 billion |
| 2026 | New chief revenue officer |
- Where was Zscaler founded?
- Zscaler was founded in San Jose, California, United States in 2007.
- Who founded Zscaler?
- Zscaler was founded by Jay Chaudhry and K. Kailash.
- When did Zscaler start?
- Zscaler was founded in 2007.
- How old is Zscaler?
- Zscaler is 19 years old as of 2026.
Founding Story
Jay Chaudhry, who had already founded and sold several security companies including SecureIT, CipherTrust, and AirDefense, started Zscaler in 2007 with K. Kailash. Their premise was that security inspection should move from on-premises appliances into a multi-tenant cloud. Zscaler listed on Nasdaq in March 2018 under the ticker ZS.
Founders
Jay Chaudhry
Jay Chaudhry founded and sold security companies including SecureIT, CipherTrust, and AirDefense before starting Zscaler in 2007. He has served as chief executive officer since founding and also chairs the board. Under his leadership Zscaler went public in 2018 and expanded from secure web gateway into private access, data protection, security operations, and AI security.
K. Kailash
K. Kailash co-founded Zscaler with Jay Chaudhry in 2007 and helped build the early multi-tenant cloud proxy architecture that inspects user traffic in Zscaler's data centers rather than on customer premises.
Key Milestones
Zscaler founded
Jay Chaudhry and K. Kailash founded Zscaler to deliver enterprise security from the cloud.
Source: sec.govLightspeed Investment
Zscaler raised $38 million in August 2012 in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Source: en.wikipedia.org$1 Billion Valuation
Zscaler raised $100 million in a round led by TPG in August 2015 at a valuation of more than $1 billion.
Source: zscaler.comCloudneeti and Edgewise Acquired
Zscaler bought Cloudneeti and Edgewise Networks in 2020.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSmokescreen and Trustdome Acquired
Zscaler bought Smokescreen Technologies and Trustdome in 2021.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgShiftRight Acquired
Zscaler bought the security-workflow company ShiftRight in 2022.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAvalor and Airgap acquisitions
Zscaler bought Avalor, a security data fabric startup, and Airgap Networks, an agentless segmentation company.
Source: zscaler.comRed Canary acquisition
Zscaler acquired managed detection and response provider Red Canary, which ended fiscal 2026 with $141 million of ARR.
Source: nasdaq.comFiscal 2026 revenue reaches $3.353 billion
Revenue grew 25% and ARR reached $3.771 billion; Zscaler also announced a roughly 3% workforce reduction.
Source: nasdaq.comNew chief revenue officer
Ross Tackett, head of worldwide sales, became CRO on October 1, 2026, succeeding Mike Rich.
Source: barchart.comMajor Acquisitions
Canonic Security
2023Added SaaS supply chain security for third-party apps and integrations connected to SaaS environments.
Avalor
2024Added a security data fabric that aggregates findings from many tools to prioritize risk.
Airgap Networks
2024Added agentless segmentation for branch and campus networks to limit lateral movement.
Red Canary
2025Added managed detection and response and security operations capabilities.
Keep researching Zscaler
Zscaler Company History FAQ
When, where, and how was Zscaler originally founded?
Zscaler was founded in 2007 in San Jose, California, by serial cybersecurity entrepreneur Jay Chaudhry and former NetScaler chief architect K. Kailash.
What radical insight led to the creation of Zscaler?
Jay Chaudhry recognized that enterprise workloads and apps were shifting to the cloud (Salesforce, AWS) and employees were becoming mobile, rendering traditional hardware firewalls and corporate VPNs obsolete.
When did Zscaler complete its initial public offering?
Zscaler went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange under ticker symbol ZS in March 2018, pricing at $16 per share and surging over 100% on its first trading day.
How did Zscaler pioneer the Zero Trust network architecture?
Zscaler built the Zero Trust Exchange, a security cloud that securely connects users directly to specific authorized applications rather than placing users onto the corporate network.
When did Zscaler surpass $1 billion and $2 billion in annual recurring revenue?
Zscaler crossed the landmark $1 billion ARR threshold in 2022 and rapidly surpassed $2 billion ARR by 2024, becoming one of the fastest enterprise security software platforms in history.
How many daily security transactions does Zscaler process today?
Zscaler processes over 500 billion daily secure transactions across its distributed global cloud, blocking billions of cyber threats and policy violations every 24 hours.
What is the historical significance of Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) and Private Access (ZPA)?
ZIA replaced legacy on-premises secure web gateway hardware, while ZPA revolutionized remote access by eliminating insecure corporate virtual private networks (VPNs).
How did the 2020 shift to remote work accelerate Zscaler's adoption?
During COVID lockdowns, Global 2000 enterprises suffered VPN crashes; Zscaler allowed millions of remote employees to securely access corporate applications overnight without hardware constraints.
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