Proofpoint to hire 200+ engineers, open AI security hub in Hyderabad

Dhawan said India ranks among Proofpoint's leading markets for both interest in AI and awareness of the need to secure it. "The US and two or three other countries are ahead of India in terms of the interest in and speed of AI adoption," he said. "But when you look at both AI adoption and awareness of the importance of securing AI, India would be among the top five markets."

Proofpoint's India business has tripled over the past 12 months, while new customer acquisition has grown at a double-digit rate.

The company is also expanding its data and AI capabilities in India as enterprises face growing privacy and data sovereignty requirements, including those under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act. Proofpoint has had a local data center supporting Indian customers since the third quarter of 2025. Its unified data and AI solution is designed to keep sensitive information within the country while meeting local compliance requirements.

"We work with some of the largest enterprises and public sector organisations in the country," Dhawan said. "When we help these customers identify their critical information, they want assurance that the data remains within India's boundaries. That is where our sovereign solution comes in."

The sovereign architecture is designed to scale as the company adds customers and processes larger volumes of data. "It is a fully scaled-out architecture, so it is not restricted by the number of customers or the amount of information we process," Dhawan added.

Proofpoint's India workforce has grown significantly over the past two years, and Dhawan expects that trend to continue. "We have gone from virtually no significant workforce presence in India to a few hundred employees and extended team members over the past 18 to 24 months," he said. "I expect a similar trajectory over the next 12 to 18 months as we build the Centre of Excellence and expand our customer-centric and technical capabilities."