Cylance

Pioneer of AI-based endpoint protection; acquired by BlackBerry and integrated as a flagship cybersecurity product line within its enterprise portfolio.

Cylance was founded in 2012 in Irvine, California, by Stuart McClure and Ryan Permeh, with a mission to revolutionize cybersecurity through artificial intelligence and machine learning. At a time when signature-based antivirus solutions dominated the market, Cylance introduced a fundamentally different approach: using predictive AI models to identify and block malware before it could execute, rather than relying on known threat databases. This pre-execution prevention model made CylancePROTECT one of the most talked-about endpoint security products of the mid-2010s, earning the company a strong reputation among enterprise security teams and positioning it as a disruptor in the endpoint protection platform (EPP) market. Cylance grew rapidly, attracting significant venture capital funding and building a substantial enterprise customer base across industries including healthcare, finance, and government. The company raised over $177 million in funding before its acquisition and was widely regarded as one of the most innovative cybersecurity startups of its era. Its lightweight agent, low system overhead, and high detection rates without requiring constant signature updates gave it a compelling value proposition against incumbents like Symantec, McAfee, and CrowdStrike. In February 2019, BlackBerry completed its acquisition of Cylance for approximately $1.4 billion, integrating the company's AI-driven security technology into its enterprise software portfolio. Under BlackBerry, the Cylance product suite — including CylancePROTECT, CylanceOPTICS, and CylanceGUARD — continued to operate and expand, becoming a cornerstone of BlackBerry's pivot from hardware to security-focused enterprise software. The Cylance brand persists today as a product line within BlackBerry's cybersecurity offerings, though Cylance no longer exists as an independent entity.