Trailblazer Alumni Newsflash

Quantum-safe networks, agentic industrial data and smarter enterprise AI

There’s another impressive crop of alumni news landing at Tech Trailblazers Towers this week, with previous winners and runners-up making moves across networking, AI, industrial data, cybersecurity, cloud-native infrastructure and digital identity.

From preparing enterprise applications for the post-quantum era and putting scientific AI into the hands of researchers, to using agents to make industrial data AI-ready and helping defence organisations act faster on vulnerabilities, our alumni are continuing to tackle some of enterprise technology’s biggest challenges.

Here are seven Trailblazer alumni stories that caught our attention this week.

Atsign takes enterprise networking a step closer to the post-quantum era

Atsign — Source: GlobeNewswire | 2024 & 2025 Networking Trailblazers winner

Atsign has integrated NIST-approved post-quantum cryptography across its core SDKs, giving developers and enterprise teams a route to protecting sensitive data flows against future quantum threats without having to completely rewrite existing applications.

The new capabilities are designed to cover new applications, modernised software and legacy systems, including connections protected through Atsign’s NoPorts technology. The move addresses the increasingly urgent “harvest now, decrypt later” problem, where encrypted information stolen today could potentially be decrypted once sufficiently powerful quantum computers arrive.

Atsign has now won our Networking Trailblazers Award in both 2024 and 2025, so seeing the company pushing networking security into the post-quantum era feels particularly fitting. Congratulations to the team on another significant step forward.

News source: GlobeNewswire — Atsign adds NIST-approved quantum-safe cryptography to SDKs
Source URL: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/08/26/3351148/0/en/atsign-adds-nist-approved-quantum-safe-cryptography-to-sdks.html
Tech Trailblazers record: 2024 & 2025 Tech Trailblazers Awards winners and runners-up

SandboxAQ puts AI-powered catalyst discovery into AWS Marketplace

SandboxAQ — Source: AIwire | 2024 AI Trailblazers winner

SandboxAQ has made AQCat, its Large Quantitative Model for catalyst discovery, generally available through AWS Marketplace and deployable using Amazon SageMaker.

The idea is to put sophisticated computational chemistry capabilities directly into the hands of industrial and materials R&D teams. AQCat has been trained on millions of high-fidelity quantum chemistry calculations and is designed to screen potential catalysts far more quickly than conventional physics-based methods, helping researchers narrow down the candidates worth taking into more expensive laboratory testing.

SandboxAQ was crowned our 2024 AI Trailblazers winner. Making advanced scientific AI easier for enterprise researchers to deploy through infrastructure they already use is exactly the sort of journey from cutting-edge technology to practical commercial application we enjoy following.

Congratulations to the SandboxAQ team.

News source: AIwire — SandboxAQ expands access to AQCat through AWS
Source URL: https://www.hpcwire.com/aiwire/2026/08/25/sandboxaq-expands-access-to-aqcat-catalyst-discovery-model-through-aws/
Tech Trailblazers record: 2024 Tech Trailblazers Awards winners and runners-up

HighByte brings agentic configuration to industrial DataOps

HighByte — Source: HighByte / Automation.com | 2019 Firestarter Trailblazers winner

HighByte has launched version 4.5 of its Intelligence Hub, introducing a new Modeling Agent and expanded Model Context Protocol tools that allow industrial teams to build and edit data models using natural language.

The release also introduces a Data Lineage Graph for tracing relationships across industrial data, broader support for the i3X industrial API standard and improvements to enterprise deployment and AVEVA PI integration. Importantly, the new Modeling Agent keeps human review in the loop before configuration changes take effect.

HighByte was our 2019 Firestarter Trailblazers winner and an IoT Trailblazers runner-up that same year. Seven years later, it is particularly good to see the company applying agentic AI to the very practical challenge of making complex industrial information easier to contextualise and prepare for AI.

Congratulations to the HighByte team.

News source: HighByte / Automation.com — HighByte releases agentic configuration for Industrial DataOps
Source URLs:
https://www.highbyte.com/news/press-releases/highbyte-releases-agentic-configuration-for-industrial-dataops
https://www.automation.com/article/highbyte-agentic-configuration-industrial-dataops
Tech Trailblazers record: 2019 Tech Trailblazers Awards winners and runners-up

Axonius helps defence teams turn vulnerability directives into action

Axonius — Source: Axonius | 2019 Security Trailblazers runner-up

Axonius has introduced support for Information Assurance Vulnerability Management directives within Axonius Exposures, aimed specifically at helping US defence organisations identify which assets are affected when a new cybersecurity directive lands.

Rather than security teams manually correlating directives against multiple asset inventories, the platform can map IAVM requirements to a continuously reconciled view of the organisation’s assets. That matters when remediation deadlines are already ticking and teams need to move quickly from “we have a vulnerability directive” to “these are the systems we need to fix”.

Axonius was a Security Trailblazers runner-up in 2019. It is great to see that focus on asset visibility continuing to evolve into a very practical way of helping organisations prioritise and act on security risk.

Congratulations to the team.

News source: Axonius — Axonius introduces IAVM support for US defence agencies
Source URL: https://www.axonius.com/newsroom/press-release/axonius-introduces-information-assurance-vulnerability-management-axonius-asset-cloud-close-asset-intelligence-gap-us-defense-agencies
Tech Trailblazers record: 2019 Tech Trailblazers Awards winners and runners-up

Aqua Security extends runtime protection across VMware Tanzu

Aqua Security — Source: Aqua Security | 2018 Security Trailblazers winner

Aqua Security has highlighted its integration with VMware Tanzu, bringing vulnerability, malware and secrets scanning together with runtime policy enforcement across Tanzu Application Service and VMware Kubernetes environments.

The approach follows applications through their lifecycle: checking artefacts before they reach production and then monitoring running workloads for suspicious behaviour, unauthorised changes and other threats. For regulated organisations running private-cloud infrastructure, the aim is to extend control beyond the infrastructure layer and into the applications actually running on it.

Aqua Security was our 2018 Security Trailblazers winner as well as a Containers Trailblazers runner-up. Its continued focus on securing cloud-native applications from development through to runtime makes this latest work particularly appropriate for one of our earliest cloud-security Trailblazers.

Congratulations to the Aqua team.

News source: Aqua Security — Aqua and VMware Tanzu integration
Source URL: https://www.aquasec.com/blog/integrate-aqua-and-vmware-tanzu-to-control-what-happens-in-your-private-cloud/
Tech Trailblazers record: 2018 Tech Trailblazers Awards winners and runners-up

Confluent keeps real-time data moving into the agentic AI era

Confluent — Source: Confluent | 2019 Big Data Trailblazers winner

Confluent has released a substantial new set of updates across Confluent Cloud and WarpStream, spanning larger Kafka workloads, migration capabilities, security, Flink, connectors and AI.

Of particular interest is the company’s growing agentic AI layer. Confluent Intelligence is adding real-time anomaly detection and forecasting, while its managed MCP server can now carry out actions such as restarting connectors and changing connector configuration. There are also new agent skills and an early-access Copilot for building and operating Confluent Cloud.

Confluent won our Big Data Trailblazers Award back in 2019. Data streaming has moved a long way since then, and it is satisfying to see one of our alumni continuing to evolve as real-time data becomes an increasingly important foundation for AI agents and automated enterprise systems.

Keep blazing that trail, Confluent.

News source: Confluent — What’s new in Confluent Cloud and WarpStream
Source URL: https://developer.confluent.io/newsletter/whats-new-in-confluent-cloud-and-warpstream/
Tech Trailblazers record: 2019 Tech Trailblazers Awards winners and runners-up

1Kosmos strengthens identity checks for healthcare providers

1Kosmos — Source: Biometric Update / GlobeNewswire | 2023 Blockchain Trailblazers winner

1Kosmos is now available through Epic Toolbox for Identity Verification in the EpicCare Link category, helping healthcare organisations verify external clinicians and providers before granting them access to sensitive patient information.

The integration embeds identity proofing into provider onboarding, combining government-issued document checks, biometric matching and liveness detection. The workflow meets NIST Identity Assurance Level 2 requirements and can be configured by healthcare organisations without custom coding.

1Kosmos was our 2023 Blockchain Trailblazers winner. Its continued work around trusted digital identity is a useful reminder that some of the most valuable enterprise innovation happens when sophisticated technology disappears into a simpler, safer everyday process.

Congratulations to the 1Kosmos team.

News source: Biometric Update / GlobeNewswire — 1Kosmos integrates with EpicCare Link for stronger identity checks
Source URLs:
https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/1kosmos-integrates-with-epiccare-link-for-stronger-identity-checks
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/08/19/3347713/0/en/1kosmos-delivers-high-assurance-identity-verification-for-healthcare-providers-in-epiccare-link.html
Tech Trailblazers record: 2023 Tech Trailblazers Awards winners and runners-up

Once a Trailblazer, always a Trailblazer

The team here at Tech Trailblazers Towers never tires of seeing companies recognised by our judges go on to develop new technologies, solve new problems and keep adapting as enterprise IT changes around them.

This week alone, our alumni are helping organisations prepare for post-quantum security, applying AI to scientific discovery and industrial data, improving cybersecurity response, protecting cloud-native workloads, building real-time infrastructure for AI agents and strengthening digital identity in healthcare.

Here at Tech Trailblazers, we’re proud to have played a small part in recognising these businesses along the way. Huge congratulations this week to Atsign, SandboxAQ, HighByte, Axonius, Aqua Security, Confluent and 1Kosmos.

Could your company be joining them in the Tech Trailblazers hall of fame?

Entries for the Tech Trailblazers Awards 2026 are open to eligible enterprise technology startups and scaleups under ten years old, based on the date the company was founded, and privately funded or at Series C funding or below. The final deadline is 30 September 2026 at 23:59 Pacific Time.

If you’re building something innovative in AI, cloud, cybersecurity, networking, big data, fintech, storage or one of our other enterprise technology categories, we’d love to hear from you.

Find out more and enter the Tech Trailblazers Awards 2026.

Keep blazing those trails!

Rose Ross
Chief Trailblazer & Founder
Tech Trailblazers Awards