Proofpoint, Inc., a global leader in human and agent cybersecurity, today announced a significant expansion of its commitment to India as rapid adoption of AI transforms how organisations protect people, AI agents and sensitive data. Central to this expansion and fuelled by customer demand is the delivery of Proofpoint’s unified data and AI solution, helping organisations meet India’s evolving privacy and data sovereignty requirements, including those arising from the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA).
As organisations rapidly adopt AI to transform how work gets done, many of them may face an expanding security gap. Proofpoint’s 2026 AI and Human Risk Landscape report found that while 87% of organisations globally have already deployed AI, 52% of those are not fully confident they could detect a compromised AI system. India, with its world-class engineering talent, thriving technology ecosystem and rapidly growing digital economy, is uniquely positioned to help close it, making the country a strategic location for advancing the next generation of AI security innovation while supporting customers across one of the world’s fastest-growing cybersecurity markets.
“India is at the intersection of three major shifts: rapid AI adoption, an increasingly sophisticated threat landscape and a new era of data protection and compliance,” said Sumit Dhawan, CEO of Proofpoint. “As organisations embrace AI, protecting people and sensitive data—and securing how employees and AI agents work together—becomes even more critical. The momentum we are seeing with customers in India demonstrates the scale of that need. We are doubling down on India: delivering against its specific privacy and sovereignty requirements, investing closer to our customers, and expanding the role India plays in our global AI security strategy.”
Rapid customer momentum as AI changes the threat landscape
Proofpoint’s business in India has tripled over the past 12 months, new customer acquisition has grown at a double-digit rate, and seats protected have increased by more than 600% over the past 18 months, making Proofpoint one of the fastest-growing cybersecurity companies in India.
Recent customer wins span the BFSI sector, including one of India’s largest private sector banks, as well as leading BPOs, defence organisations and public sector entities, as enterprises look to strengthen protection against AI-accelerated threats, safeguard sensitive data and secure the way employees and AI agents work.
This heightened risk environment is translating into strong demand for new Proofpoint capabilities, including Active Exploits Protection, as customers look to identify and respond to emerging threats faster. The capability helps security teams identify vulnerabilities being actively exploited in the wild, prioritise remediation based on real-world attacker activity and reduce exposure faster.
Unmatched data protection for the DPDPA era
According to Proofpoint’s latest Voice of the CISO report, 99% of Indian CISOs reported material loss of sensitive data, significantly above the global average of 66%. As India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) raises expectations for how organisations safeguard personal data, rapid adoption of AI is making that challenge more complex. As AI becomes embedded across the enterprise, employees and AI agents are creating and sharing sensitive data in more ways than ever. That’s creating new security and privacy risks and a growing need to know where data resides, how it is used and how it is protected.
Proofpoint is uniquely positioned to help Indian organisations address this challenge through a unified, human- and AI-centric approach to data security. Its intent-based unified data security solution brings together Data Security Posture Management (DSPM), Enterprise and Adaptive Email DLP, and Insider Threat Management (ITM), enabling organisations to discover and classify sensitive data, prevent its loss across the channels where people and AI work, and detect risky behaviour by careless, compromised or malicious users. For government and public sector organisations with data localisation and on-premises requirements, Proofpoint can also support insider threat programmes while keeping sensitive data within required environments.
Unlike fragmented approaches that address data and users in isolation, Proofpoint connects data sensitivity with user behaviour and threat context, giving security teams the visibility to focus protection where risk is greatest. Proofpoint is the first in the industry to bring this breadth of data security capabilities together in a single platform, helping organisations achieve and maintain compliance with DPDPA.
Expanding India’s role in Proofpoint’s global AI security innovation
Proofpoint is expanding India’s role in its global R&D organisation with a new AI Security Engineering Centre of Excellence in Hyderabad, with plans to hire more than 200 engineers in the next 12 to 24 months. The Centre will advance next-generation AI security technologies and accelerate Proofpoint’s AI security roadmap, including capabilities from its recently acquired Acuvity portfolio spanning AI governance, runtime protection, and security for AI applications, copilots and autonomous agents.
In addition, the company is expanding its go-to-market presence with a new Delhi office and continued investment in sales, customer success, technical support and its partner ecosystem, bringing greater local expertise and support to customers as they navigate the security and data protection challenges of the AI era. Together, these investments underscore Proofpoint’s long-term commitment to India as both a high-growth cybersecurity market and an increasingly important centre for the development of AI-era security technologies.
“India represents a tremendous opportunity, not only because of its extraordinary engineering talent, but also because organisations across the country are embracing AI at remarkable speed,” said Bikramdeep Singh, India Country Manager, Proofpoint. “Our expanded presence in Hyderabad and Delhi enables us to innovate locally while serving customers and partners more closely. By investing in both world-class engineering talent and customer-facing expertise, we’re reinforcing our long-term commitment to helping organisations across India securely accelerate their AI transformation.”
Proofpoint By the Numbers in India:
- 3x year-on-year business growth in India, with double-digit growth in new customer acquisition.
- New AI Security Engineering Centre of Excellence in Hyderabad, with plans to hire 200 engineers over the next 12 to 24 months.
- 550+ extended team members at the Pune Centre of Excellence supporting global engineering, product development, customer support and technical services.
- Local data centre supporting Indian customers since Q3 2025 to address compliance and data sovereignty requirements.
- Two major hubs across Delhi and Bangalore supporting go-to-market operations.
To learn how Proofpoint can help you align with DPDPA expectations and strengthen personal data protection, read the white paper Navigating India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act. You can also contact your Proofpoint representative to request a consultation.
