Terra Security names Anna Sarnek VP of business strategy

Terra Security has appointed Anna Sarnek as Vice President of Business & Strategy as it increases its focus on partnerships and growth for its agent-led offensive security offering.

Sarnek joins the executive team after serving as a strategic adviser for the past year. She will lead growth strategy, product direction, and industry partnerships, with an emphasis on technology partners, channel organisations, managed security service providers, and consulting firms.

The appointment brings in an operator with experience in cloud partnerships and early-stage cybersecurity business development. Sarnek previously led Cyber Startup and Venture Capital Business Development at Amazon Web Services, working with investors and founders across the cybersecurity sector.

Partner emphasis

The role centres on channel and ecosystem relationships. Terra Security describes its approach as ecosystem-led, aligning platform strategy, partner feedback, and go-to-market execution. It also has an ongoing partnership with AWS.

In the new post, Sarnek will coordinate work across internal teams and external partners, spanning platform strategy, partner engagement, and how Terra Security communicates its product narrative through partners and routes to market.

Co-founder and CEO Shahar Peled said Sarnek has already played a key role in the company's direction during her time as an adviser.

"Anna has been instrumental in building Terra behind the scenes since last May," Peled said. "She brings a deep understanding of our product, customers, and partners, which will help her scale the company thoughtfully and strategically. More importantly, she shares our conviction that AI-native security represents an entirely new category, one where Terra is uniquely positioned to lead."

Channel strategy

Sarnek said the channel has shifted in recent years as the number of security vendors has grown. She described the next phase as a return to deeper alignment between vendors and partners.

"Channel partnerships used to be deeply strategic, but the explosion of vendors has pushed many relationships toward more transactional motions," Sarnek said. "We need to return to the kind of strategic alignment that originally made the channel so effective, building best-of-breed solutions and cohesive platform narratives alongside our partners rather than operating in silos. It's also time to challenge the conventional startup playbook that delays hyperscaler and channel investment. Strong partnerships compound over time, and if you wait until later funding stages, you forfeit that advantage. Terra is already seeing the benefits of starting early."

Her comments reflect a wider industry debate over routes to market for cybersecurity companies. Many vendors start with direct sales before expanding partner programmes. Others invest earlier in systems integrators, consultancies, and cloud marketplaces, despite the operational overhead and longer sales cycles that can follow.

Terra Security is also highlighting the influence of advisory firms and specialist security providers in enterprise buying decisions. Consulting organisations and red teaming firms often shape how security leaders evaluate offensive security tools and can help integrate testing into broader security programmes.

Offensive security

Terra Security describes its product as "Agentic AI-Powered continuous penetration testing" linked to code changes and shifting attack surfaces. It combines multiple AI agents with human supervision for safety and control, and covers web, AI, internal applications, APIs, mobile, networks, and cloud environments.

Terra Security works with large enterprises, including Fortune 500 organisations. Demand for continuous testing has increased as software release cycles shorten and organisations add cloud services, APIs, and third-party integrations. Security teams also face pressure to show measurable risk reduction and faster remediation, shifting penetration testing from an annual exercise to a recurring process.

The company has raised funding from venture firms and corporate investors including SYN Ventures, Felicis, Lama Partners, SVCI, Underscore VC, Dell Technologies Capital, and Capital One Ventures. It also won the 2025 CrowdStrike/AWS/NVIDIA Cybersecurity Accelerator.

Terra Security operates from the US and Tel Aviv. Its near-term focus includes expanding its partner footprint alongside product development, with Sarnek expected to play a leading role.

"Terra represents a category with materially different value," Sarnek said. "We see a clear path to building a company that defines Agentic Offensive Security."