Jacksonville, FL, March 31, 2026 – Inc., the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future, today revealed that OnDefend has been ranked No. 67 on its sixth annual Inc. Regionals: Southeast list—the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the Southeast. The region includes South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and Puerto Rico.
With a growth rate of 134%, the recognition reflects the trust organizations put in OnDefend and its team to offer advanced offensive security testing by combining elite adversary expertise with proprietary technology and adaptive programs that evolve alongside an organization’s environment and real-world attacker tactics.
“Being recognized on the Inc. Regionals list is a reflection of our team and innovations, in that order,” said Chris Freedman, CEO of OnDefend. “Our growth is driven by a simple mission: to solve our industry’s most complex cybersecurity challenges, secure our world, and have a blast while doing it. Between our people, technology, and customers that feel more like partners, we have been able to see significant growth year after year.”
This is not the first time OnDefend has been recognized for its growth. This year, the company was recognized on both the Gator100 and Seminole 100 lists, and in 2025 ranked #4 on the Jacksonville Business Journal’s Fastest-Growing Companies list, was named a Best Place to Work, and was recognized as JAXUSA’s Innovator of the Year.
An extension of the national Inc. 5000 list, the Regionals list offers a data-driven look at private businesses driving growth across the Southeast economy.
Together, companies in the Southeast (South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Puerto Rico) on this year’s list generated 12,079 jobs and posted a median growth rate of approximately 89 percent between 2022 and 2024.
“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.
Complete results of the Inc. Regionals: Southeast, including company profiles and an interactive database sortable by industry and metro area, will be available beginning March 31 at: https://www.inc.com/regionals/southeast.
About OnDefend: OnDefend specializes in advanced cybersecurity testing that delivers ongoing security validation across the most complex technology environments. Through continuous adversary emulation, OnDefend validates every layer of technology risk by uncovering hidden attack paths, control failures, and systemic weaknesses that traditional testing often misses. OnDefend leverages deep red team expertise with proprietary innovation and AI-driven intelligence across software, cloud, hardware, IoT, and AI environments. For more information, visit www.ondefend.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 www.inc.com.
