Traceable
Acquired5 known investors
Traceable offers a context-aware application and API security platform that automatically discovers and inventories internal, public, shadow, and third-party APIs across on-prem and cloud environments. It provides security posture management, threat detection and blocking, and API security testing for SOC teams, incident responders, and security teams across the software development lifecycle.
Also known as Traceable AI Β· Traceable by Harness
Founders & leadership
Investors Β· 5
Also in the syndicate Β· 1
Valuation Β· disclosed
Disclosed eventsSource: SEC prospectus filings, and round valuations the company or its investors disclosed β follow each entry's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Traceable is an application and API security company whose platform captures, correlates and analyzes application and API activity across an organization's ecosystem over time. The platform is organized around three areas: Application & API Posture Management (continuous discovery and inventory of every API β internal, private, public, externally exposed, rogue, shadow, partner and third-party β plus posture insights covering APIs and MCP tools); Application & API Security Testing (identifying and remediating vulnerabilities from code to runtime by embedding testing for APIs and AI applications into the SDLC); and Application & API Protection (real-time defense against OWASP Top 10 issues, API vulnerabilities, bots, DDoS, business logic abuse, account takeover, fraud and sensitive data exfiltration).
Discovery tracks API changes via on-premises and cloud components, in-code instrumentation, API management integrations, network traffic endpoints and eBPF-based workload visibility. Security testing requires no OpenAPI specs or Postman collections, instead building tests from real and replayed traffic and focusing on active APIs to reduce false positives. Analytics capabilities support SOC teams, incident responders, threat hunters and red/blue teams with attack detection, threat hunting and user behavior analytics. The company also markets discovery and protection for generative AI and LLM-powered application APIs. Product documentation covers discovery, protection (WAF, bot protection, API protection policies), API security testing, platform administration (data classification, risk and threat scoring, RBAC), agent deployment, CI/CD, cloud security, WAF and project management integrations, and a Traceable MCP Server.
Founding story
Traceable was founded by serial entrepreneurs Jyoti Bansal and Sanjay Nagaraj. At AppDynamics β which Bansal founded in 2008 and which Cisco acquired for $3.7 billion β Bansal (founder) and Nagaraj (VP of Engineering) observed the widespread adoption of cloud-native architectures and the APIs connecting them, and started Traceable to protect applications and APIs from next-generation attacks. Bansal serves as CEO and Nagaraj as CTO. The company came out of BIG Labs, Bansal's start-up studio, as its second start-up after Harness.
Business model
Traceable sells an enterprise application and API security platform, offered as SaaS as well as self-managed deployments on-premises or in customer cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure, or customer datacenter). Go-to-market centers on demo requests and direct enterprise sales; following the February 2025 merger it operates as 'Traceable by Harness' within Harness Inc.
Sources indicate a commercial enterprise software platform sold with SaaS and self-managed deployment options and subscription terms; specific pricing is not disclosed in the sources.
Traction
Published customer case studies cite outcomes such as 60+ FTE hours saved weekly and 70% greater API visibility (Informatica), 1,000+ engineering hours saved and 50,000+ APIs protected (Jobvite), and 100% increased API visibility with 4x more vulnerabilities found (Axos Bank). A 2022 profile reported 106 employees, and the 2022 Series B release described the company as rapidly growing with customers including Informatica, Bullish, DigitalOcean, Zolve and Houwzer.
Latest developments
In February 2025 Traceable announced a merger with Harness; the merger was reported as completed in March 2025, with Traceable's technology integrated into the Harness platform and the site branded 'Traceable by Harness' under Harness Inc. Current product messaging emphasizes AppSec for the AI era, including posture management for MCP tools and security testing and protection for LLM-powered and generative AI applications.
βΈFull profile β market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Traceable competes in the API security market and has described itself as providing the industry's leading API security platform for discovering, managing and securing APIs at enterprise scale. As of May 2022 it was valued at more than $450 million and backed by cybersecurity-focused investors. Since 2025 it operates as part of Harness.
Traceable positions itself as a context-aware application security platform spanning the full DevSecOps lifecycle β from API development and testing through runtime protection β using distributed tracing and context-based behavioral analytics to understand each API's business logic, user attribution and data flow. Its investor described this full-lifecycle coverage as differentiated from point solutions. Testing requires zero configuration and no dependency on OpenAPI specs or Postman collections, and deployment options include agentless out-of-band traffic mirroring alongside in-application agents.
Technology
The platform combines distributed tracing, machine learning and big data/data lake technology. Application and user-driven transaction data flows into a data lake, where an ML engine baselines activity and maps business logic into a behavioral model that adapts as usage changes. It supports internal instrumentation (agents deployed inside applications, including Kubernetes sidecar containers) and external instrumentation (mirrored user traffic), plus eBPF-based workload visibility, API gateway integrations, and CI/CD and WAF integrations. Capabilities include shadow and orphaned API discovery, real-time vulnerability and misconfiguration detection, topology and data-flow mapping, risk and threat scoring, rate limiting, IP range blocking, brute-force and bot protection.
Go-to-market
Enterprise direct sales supported by demo requests, case studies, whitepapers, webinars and other content marketing; the 2022 Series B was intended in part to expand sales and marketing teams and global sales. Post-merger, the offering is marketed as part of Harness's AI-native DevSecOps platform.
Enterprise security, SOC, incident response and development teams at organizations running cloud-native, microservices and API-driven applications, spanning startup, growth and enterprise segments. Named customers include Informatica, Jobvite, Axos Bank, Bullish, DigitalOcean, Zolve, Houwzer and large finance firms.
Geography
Headquarters reported in San Francisco. The platform supports deployment across on-premises, cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure) and customer datacenter environments; 2022 funding was earmarked in part for expanding global sales.
History
Traceable was created inside BIG Labs (Bansal Innovation Group), the start-up studio Jyoti Bansal launched in October 2017 after AppDynamics' $3.7 billion sale to Cisco. One source dates the founding to 2018; other sources describe the company as launched in July 2020 with a $20 million Series A. In May 2022 the company raised a $60 million Series B led by IVP at a valuation of more than $450 million, with total funding reported at roughly $79-80 million and headcount around 106. In February 2025 Traceable announced a merger with Harness, the AI-native software delivery platform also led by Bansal; the merger was reported completed in March 2025 and Traceable's technology was integrated into the Harness platform. Traceable web properties now carry Harness Inc. copyright and the brand 'Traceable by Harness'.
Risks & controversies
No controversies are described in the available sources. Sources conflict on the founding year (2018 per one profile versus a July 2020 launch per others) and on total capital raised ($79M versus $80M). Loss of independent-company status following the 2025 Harness merger is documented.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources β announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed β not independently audited.
Timeline Β· 3
launches, deals, and filingsTraceable announced a merger with Harness, the AI-native software delivery platform, positioning the combined company to deliver an AI-native DevSecOps platform integrating security across the software development lifecycle. Harness integrated Traceable's technology into its platform; the merger was reported as completed in March 2025.
Series B round valuing the company at more than $450 million, to fund product development and research, sales and marketing expansion, and global sales growth.
$60M source β
Traceable was started by Jyoti Bansal and Sanjay Nagaraj through a $20 million Series A in July 2020.
$20M source β
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
βΈResearch sources Β· 8
primary sources listed
- Traceabletraceable.ai Β· web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Traceable do?
- API and application security platform, now part of Harness, that discovers, tests and protects enterprise APIs and AI apps.
- Who founded Traceable?
- Traceable was founded by Jyoti Bansal.
- Who are Traceable's investors?
- Traceable's investors include Geodesic Capital, IVP (Institutional Venture Partners), Unusual Ventures, Tiger Global Management.