SAN FRANCISCO, April 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Optery, the award-winning personal data removal platform helping individuals and businesses remove exposed personal information from data broker and people-search websites, has been ranked No. 12 on the 2026 Inc. Regionals: Pacific list of the fastest-growing private companies. Optery posted 763% revenue growth over the two-year evaluation period, and ranked No. 2 in the Security category, and No. 1 in the San Francisco metro area.
An extension of the national Inc. 5000 list, the Regionals list offers a data-driven look at high-growth businesses by geography. Companies on this year’s Regionals list demonstrate exceptional revenue expansion, resilience, and job creation during a challenging economic period. Between 2022 and 2024, the companies in the Regionals: Pacific list added 7,503 jobs and $2.5 billion to the region’s economy. The Pacific region includes California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and Alaska.
Founded and headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Optery helps individuals, families, and organizations remove exposed personal data from hundreds of sites that publish sensitive information such as phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, relatives, and employment information.
Data broker sites are widely used by attackers during the reconnaissance and targeting phases of cyberattacks and real-world threats. The data available on these sites is leveraged for phishing, smishing, vishing, account takeovers, fraud, and physical threats against individuals, employees, and executives.
How Optery Works
Optery scans hundreds of data broker and people-search websites to locate exposed personal information tied to an individual. The platform then automates opt-out requests and verifies removals, continuously monitoring these sites for republished profiles. Users receive detailed Exposure and Removals Reports showing where their personal data was found and removed with before-and-after screenshots.
Optery is unique among personal data removal solutions, combining patented search technology with sophisticated opt-out automation to discover and remove dozens more exposed data broker profiles per person on average than other services. This dual approach dramatically reduces the online PII exposure that fuels cyber and physical threats.
Optery currently supports automated removals for 640+ data broker sites and 1,000+ sites including Custom Removals requests, with coverage continually expanding.
Optery for Business serves enterprises by removing personal information from the internet for their employees and executives, and offers an API that enables organizations to embed data broker scanning and removal technology into their own applications.
Independent Reviews and Media Coverage
Independent evaluations and cybersecurity analyst reviews have highlighted several strengths of Optery’s platform, including the breadth of its search capabilities, the speed of its removals, and the detailed reporting it provides to users.
In a blind study by Consumer Reports, Optery was the #1 most effective personal data removal service tested at the conclusion of the 4-month study.
PCMag’s Lead Analyst for Security pointed to two standout aspects of Optery’s service: the depth of its search and the screenshot-based proof included in its reports:
“Open the report and prepare to be amazed. Optery doesn’t just search on the personal information you supplied. It uses data found in data broker profiles to recursively expand its reach … Unlike any other product I’ve seen, Optery doesn’t just state that your data was found … Rather, the report presents you with a screenshot of your actual profile data on the site.”
Awards and Industry Recognition
Optery’s technology and growth have been widely recognized across the technology and cybersecurity industries. Business Insider named Optery one of the 30 early-stage startups in 2025 most likely to become tech’s next unicorns.
Optery has received numerous industry awards, including:
- PCMag Editors’ Choice for personal data removal (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026)
- Cyber Defense Magazine Market Disruptor Award in Digital Risk Protection (2026)
- Cybersecurity Excellence Awards in Human Risk Management, Anti-Phishing, Attack Surface Management (2026)
- Globee® Awards for Cybersecurity, Social Engineering Best of Category (2026)
- SiliconANGLE TechForward Award in the Digital Risk Protection Platform Category (2026)
- Cyber Defense Magazine Most Innovative Anti-Phishing Award (2025)
- Fortress Cybersecurity Award for Privacy Enhancing Technologies (2025)
- Cyber Defense Magazine Best Service for Attack Surface Management (2025)
- Cybersecurity Excellence Awards in Employee Privacy Protection, Attack Surface Management, and Digital Footprint Management (2024 and 2025)
- Cyber Defense Magazine Top InfoSec Innovator Award for Attack Surface Management (2024)
- Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech award for security and privacy (2023)
“Exposed personal data is a serious security risk that organizations need to address proactively,” said Lawrence Gentilello, CEO of Optery. “As attackers continue to leverage data broker sites during reconnaissance, removing that data is a critical mitigation that helps reduce and prevent both cyber and physical threats. The growing recognition of this issue is helping drive demand for solutions like Optery.”
Complete results of the Inc. Regionals: Pacific, including company profiles and an interactive database sortable by industry and metro area, can be found at: https://www.inc.com/regionals/pacific.
“The honorees on this year’s Inc. Regionals list achieved exceptional growth at a time when the odds were against them. Amid inflation, supply chain disruptions, and ongoing economic uncertainty, they didn’t just persevere – they innovated, adapted, and thrived. Their resilience made them standouts in their industries and true growth engines in their regions,” said Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc.
Optery’s inclusion in the 2026 Inc. Regionals: Pacific list reflects the strength of Optery’s enterprise-grade personal data removal service and the increasing demand for solutions that help individuals and organizations reduce the security risks created by exposed personal data online.
About Optery
Optery is the first company to offer a free report with dozens of screenshots showing where your personal information is being posted by hundreds of data brokers online, and the first to offer security teams a completely self-service platform for finding and removing employee personal information from the web. Optery subscription plans automatically remove customers from these sites, clearing your home address, phone number, email, and other personal information from the Internet at scale. The service provides users with a proactive defense against escalating PII-based threats such as phishing and other social engineering attacks, credential compromise, identity fraud, doxing, and harassment. Optery has completed its AICPA SOC 2, Type II security attestation, and distinguishes itself with unparalleled search technology, data removal automation, visual evidence-based before-and-after reporting, data broker coverage, and API integration options. Optery was named a PCMag Editors’ Choice for personal data removal in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026; received Cyber Defense Magazine’s Market Disruptor Award in Digital Risk Protection in 2026; won Cybersecurity Excellence Awards in Human Risk Management, Anti-Phishing, and Attack Surface Management in 2026; and earned a Globee® Award for Cybersecurity, Social Engineering (Best of Category) in 2026. The company also won the Top InfoSec Innovator Award for Most Innovative Anti-Phishing from Cyber Defense Magazine in 2025, was recognized in SiliconANGLE’s TechForward Awards in the Digital Risk Protection Platform category in 2025, received the Fortress Cybersecurity Award for Privacy Enhancing Technologies in 2025, earned Cybersecurity Excellence Awards in Employee Privacy Protection, Attack Surface Management, and Digital Footprint Management in 2024 and 2025, was named Best Service for Attack Surface Management from Cyber Defense Magazine, received Top InfoSec Innovator Award for Attack Surface Management by Cyber Defense Magazine for 2024, and received Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech award for security and privacy in 2023. Hundreds of thousands of people and over 1,000 businesses use Optery to prevent attacks and keep their personal information off the Internet. For more information, visit http://www.optery.com.
More about Inc. and the Inc. Regionals
Methodology
The Inc. Regionals lists are ranked according to percentage revenue growth over two years. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2022. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2024. (Since then, a number of companies on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2022 is $100,000; the minimum for 2024 is $1 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons.
About Inc.
Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.
For Media Inquiries:
Contact: Sara Trammell, Director of Marketing
Email: sara@optery.com
Website: http://www.optery.com
