Abnormal Security hires former ServiceNow executive to be CFO

Abnormal Security, a startup selling email security software to companies, said on Wednesday that it’s hired former ServiceNow finance executive Lisa Banks as chief financial officer as the company gears up to prepare for an IPO.

Abnormal is going after a longstanding market, which includes incumbents Mimecast and Proofpoint, adding a layer of artificial intelligence that spots attacks in email messages. Other startups such as Material Security and Sublime Security offer competing email tools.

“We’re disrupting the legacy market, and the approach around AI and human behavior is very unique,” Banks said in an interview.

With Donald Trump returning to the White House this week, investors are bullish that they’ll see a strengthening initial public offering market, particularly for technology, after a three-year dry spell. Among the few tech IPOs last year were Reddit, Rubrik and ServiceTitan. AI chipmaker Cerebras filed IPO paperwork but has yet to float shares on the Nasdaq as planned.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, whose Wall Street firm tends to compete with Morgan Stanley when it comes to leading high-profile offerings, said last week that IPOs are “going to pick up.” At an event hosted by Cisco, Solomon said that the mood is changing and that there’s a “more constructive kind of optimism” when it comes to the overall market.

Banks said Abnormal doesn’t have a specific timeline for its IPO, but she said a year and a half should be enough time to prepare. Revenue is already predictable, thanks to the company’s multiyear deals and healthy renewal rates, she said.

“We will be profitable in the future,” Banks said.

Abnormal said in August that it had achieved more than $200 million in annualized revenue, with year-over-year growth above 100%. At that time, Abnormal said the company was valued at $5.1 billion. Investors include CrowdStrike, Greylock Partners, Insight Partners, Menlo Ventures and Wellington Management.

After seven years at ServiceNow, where she eventually became senior vice president of finance, Banks spent almost three years at restaurant payments startup SpotOn. Banks said she was eager to get back into enterprise software.

Abnormal is led by Evan Reiser, who co-founded the company in 2018 after almost three years in product management at Twitter. Banks said that Reiser is obsessed with customers and that he spends loads of time with chief information officers and security heads. She said that over time Abnormal expects to expand beyond email security.

In her role, Banks intends to work with bankers and learn from CFOs who have taken companies public. She said her finance group is busy implementing a forecasting tool, which is likely to be critical once the company is public and in the habit of providing guidance to investors.

Abnormal operates remotely, with offices in San Francisco and Las Vegas and in a WeWork space in San Jose, California, Banks said. The company reached 1,000 employees earlier this month, a spokesperson said.

Banks’s predecessor was Smita Sanadhya, who joined Abnormal from Okta in February 2024, and left the role after seven months. Sanadhya is now an advisor.