Nozomi Networks opens APAC headquarters in Singapore

Operational technology (OT) security specialist Nozomi Networks has opened its Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) headquarters in Singapore as it looks to expand its regional footprint and capitalise on growing demand for industrial cyber security capabilities in the region.

David Hope, regional vice-president for APJ at Nozomi Networks, told Computer Weekly that, while the company had had a presence in the region for some time, the launch of a Singapore headquarters was necessary to support its growing customer base.

“When I joined, I said, ‘Look, we’ve got to set up a formal entity’,” said Hope, noting that the company, with annual recurring revenues of around $76m, has doubled its regional team in just six months, adding roles in sales, marketing, customer success, solution engineering and support.

“We were operating at a high level, and we could service customers and bring in talent when needed. But with the market growing so quickly, and with manufacturing being one of our biggest market segments globally, APJ will be a critical part of that strategy,” he added.

Hope, a tech industry veteran who joined Nozomi in June 2025, explained that the expansion into the region, which accounts for about 15% of the company’s international business, is driven by increasing threats to critical infrastructure.

“IT security, as you know, is about protecting money and privacy. But OT security is about protecting operations and lives,” Hope said. “If you have a nuclear plant or a utility that gets hacked, or a dam that gets opened, the results can be catastrophic.”

He cited an example from the 2024 Olympics in Paris, where nefarious plans were discovered on the dark web to hack the city’s sewage facilities and pump sewage into the Seine River, which was used for open-water swimming, illustrating the risks facing modern infrastructure.

Nozomi’s expansion into APJ comes after it was acquired by Mitsubishi Electric last year, in a deal that valued the company at almost $1bn. Addressing concerns about supplier lock-in following the acquisition, Hope said Nozomi remains an independent company whose software will continue to protect OT systems supplied by Mitsubishi’s rivals, such as Siemens.

“Being a Japanese company, Mitsubishi are very clever, and it’s all about taking the long-term view,” Hope said. “They realise that for us to be successful, we must be agnostic, because there are Mitsubishi competitors [in the market].”

He added that Nozomi will continue to be a US-headquartered entity based in San Francisco. “It’s business as usual, and we’ve got financial backing from Mitsubishi, but we’ve got the same management team executing on the same strategy.”

Competition in OT security differs significantly from the IT security sector. Hope noted that while the IT security market is fragmented with thousands of suppliers, the OT space is dominated by a handful of market leaders, specifically identifying firms such as Claroty and Armis as key rivals, alongside IT security suppliers entering the space.

“We mainly see ourselves competing against dedicated OT security solution providers,” Hope said. He believes Nozomi has a technical edge due to the company’s early investment in artificial intelligence (AI), spearheaded by founders with backgrounds in computer science and AI. “As computing power has come in, we haven’t had to suddenly beef up with AI. We’ve had this AI layer that was already built into the solution.”

To address the security risks from the growing convergence of IT and OT networks, Hope said the company partners with suppliers such as Splunk, noting that a recently signed rail utility customer in the region is a significant Splunk user.

Nozomi has also teamed up with Fortinet on firewalls, and Google’s Mandiant, whose IT threat intelligence complements its OT threat intelligence capabilities, as well as global systems integrators such as Deloitte, EY and Accenture, which advise boards on global operational risk.

While the OT sector has been conservative in adopting cloud offerings due to security concerns, Hope suggests the tide is turning, with growing uptake of Nozomi’s cloud-based Vantage platform, which not only runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS) but can also be deployed on-premise or in hybrid cloud environments.

Hope shared an anecdote regarding a chief information security officer (CISO) at a major Middle Eastern airline who was given three days to present a risk assessment to his board. Using Nozomi’s AI-driven cloud platform, the CISO was able to generate the threat intelligence and risk scores overnight. “The computing power that cloud allows us to execute with AI is a fundamental game-changer,” Hope said.