Rubrik started out selling backups, the dullest corner of corporate IT, and turned them into security. Ransomware gangs had learned to lock up a company's backups before they demanded payment. Rubrik built backups the attackers could not change or delete, then added tools to find where sensitive data lived and to restore systems fast. When it went public in April 2024, ransomware had become one of the costliest threats a company faced.

From Backup to Security

Bipul Sinha, Arvind Jain, Soham Mazumdar, and Arvind Nithrakashyap founded Rubrik in Palo Alto in January 2014. Its first product was a backup appliance that was simpler to run than the old tools. Customers could keep copies on site or in the cloud. Over time Rubrik rebuilt itself as a cloud software company and called its approach Zero Trust Data Security. The bet was that, after an attack, the company that could recover fastest would lose the least.

Tripling Its Price

Rubrik priced its shares at $32 on April 24, 2024, above its range, and raised $752 million. It listed on the New York Stock Exchange under RBRK, and the stock rose about 16 percent on its first day. Rubrik was still losing money, but its subscription revenue kept growing. By October 2026 the stock traded at more than four times its offer price. Rubrik still trades on the NYSE under RBRK.

Cover: Landscape with a Fortress on a Hill, Augustin Hirschvogel. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a fortress on a hill (data that holds).