Proofpoint expands in India with Hyderabad AI centre
Wed, 19th Aug 2026 (Today)
Proofpoint is expanding in India, including plans to open an AI Security Engineering Centre of Excellence in Hyderabad.
It plans to hire more than 200 engineers there over the next 12 to 24 months and is adding a new office in Delhi. The expansion builds on its existing Pune Centre of Excellence, where more than 550 extended team members support engineering, product development, customer support and technical services.
The investment comes as Proofpoint reports strong growth in India. The company said its business in the country has tripled over the past 12 months, while new customer acquisition has grown at a double-digit rate and the number of seats protected has risen by more than 600% over the past 18 months.
Recent customer wins have come from banking and financial services, business process outsourcing, defence and the public sector. Proofpoint also pointed to growing demand for products designed to help security teams identify actively exploited vulnerabilities and prioritise remediation.
Data rules
A key part of the India expansion is a broader focus on privacy and data sovereignty requirements, particularly those linked to the Digital Personal Data Protection Act. Proofpoint is offering a unified data security approach that combines Data Security Posture Management, email data loss prevention and insider threat management.
The aim is to help organisations discover and classify sensitive data, prevent data loss across communication channels and identify risky user behaviour. Proofpoint added that government and public sector organisations with data localisation and on-premises requirements can run insider threat programmes while keeping sensitive data within required environments.
Proofpoint cited its own research to highlight the pressure on security leaders in India. In its latest Voice of the CISO report, 99% of Indian chief information security officers said they had experienced material loss of sensitive data, compared with 66% globally.
Another company report found that 87% of organisations globally have already deployed AI, but 52% of them are not fully confident they could detect a compromised AI system. That has pushed security suppliers to sharpen their focus on risks tied to AI adoption, data handling and employee behaviour.
Engineering role
The Hyderabad centre will sit within Proofpoint's global research and development organisation. It will work on next-generation AI security technologies and support the company's AI security roadmap, including technology added through its acquisition of Acuvity.
That portfolio covers AI governance, runtime protection and security for AI applications, copilots and autonomous agents. By placing that work in India, Proofpoint is giving the country a larger role in AI security product development.
Alongside the engineering expansion, Proofpoint is increasing investment in sales, customer success, technical support and its partner network in India. The Delhi office is intended to strengthen its local presence with customers and partners.
India has become an increasingly important market for cybersecurity providers as organisations face tighter scrutiny over personal data, a rise in digital services and wider use of AI tools in the workplace. Demand has also been shaped by data localisation requirements and the need for more local support in regulated industries and government bodies.
Proofpoint already operates a local data centre in India to support customers with compliance and data sovereignty requirements. It also has go-to-market hubs in Delhi and Bangalore.
Sumit Dhawan, chief executive officer of Proofpoint, said India now sits at the centre of major shifts in AI adoption, cyber threats and data protection.
He said: "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.
"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."
Bikramdeep Singh, India country manager at Proofpoint, said the company sees both engineering and commercial potential in the country.
He added: "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.
"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."