Upwind appoints Rinki Sethi as Chief Security Officer to drive growth

Upwind has appointed cybersecurity industry leader Rinki Sethi as its new Chief Security Officer.

With more than 20 years of experience in information security, Sethi joins Upwind to oversee its global Information Security and Technology functions, as well as contribute to company-wide strategies that include marketing, go-to-market efforts, and customer engagement.

Sethi's career has spanned notable roles at companies such as Twitter, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, BILL, Rubrik, Walmart, and eBay/PayPal. She has also served as a board member for Vaultree and ForgeRock and is a founding partner at Lockstep Ventures, an investment firm focused on cybersecurity startups.

New role at Upwind

In her new capacity at Upwind, Sethi is expected to help accelerate adoption of runtime security practices across large enterprises. Her appointment comes at a time when Upwind has reported significant commercial momentum, highlighted by 4,000% year-over-year revenue growth in 2024, a 40% increase in customer numbers, and more than 30 product updates during the first quarter of 2025.

The company positions itself as a challenger within the Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) sector by offering real-time, runtime-first detection and protection across the cloud stack. By using runtime data instead of static rules and fragmented signals, Upwind intends to detect security threats as they occur.

Amiram Shachar, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Upwind, commented on Sethi's appointment:

"Rinki is one of the most respected CISOs in the world, and her decision to join Upwind is a major signal of where the future of cloud security is headed. She was one of the first to recognize that runtime context transforms how we secure the cloud. Now, she'll help scale that vision globally with the technical depth, customer empathy, and executive horsepower to match."

Platform approach

Upwind's platform provides a unified CNAPP solution that combines agentless visibility with runtime detection using Extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) technology. The company's platform integrates cloud security posture management (CSPM), cloud workload protection platform (CWPP), cloud detection and response (CDR), vulnerability management, and identity security. By grounding these functions in live, runtime activity, Upwind aims to give security teams the ability to focus on key issues and respond before security risks become incidents. The company reports that customers have seen up to 95% fewer alerts and significantly decreased time needed to remediate incidents.

Sethi is also one of Upwind's early customers. She provides perspective from both the customer's viewpoint and as an experienced boardroom leader.

Discussing her reasons for joining Upwind, Sethi said:

"As a CISO, I lived the pain of chasing dashboards while incidents unfolded in real-time. Upwind is the first platform I've seen that flips the model, from reactive noise to real-time decisions. As an early customer, I experienced how powerful it is to operate with full runtime context. That's why I'm joining Upwind, to help build the future I always wanted as a practitioner."

Sethi's academic background includes a bachelor's degree in Computer Science Engineering from UC Davis and a master's degree in Information Security from Capella University. She is also known for her mentorship and advocacy for women in the cybersecurity sector. Outside her professional life, she is a mother of two and supports startups focused on cybersecurity technology.

Growth and backing

Founded by Amiram Shachar and the team behind Spot.io, Upwind has raised USD $180 million since 2022 and is backed by several venture firms and angel investors. The company aims to deliver actionable, real-time security protection for organisations working in dynamic, cloud-native environments.