Keyfactor is a company that brings digital trust to the hyper-connected world by empowering organizations to build and maintain secure, trusted connections across every device, workload, and machine. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Keyfactor CEO Jordan Rackie to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Jordan Rackie’s Background
What is Jordan Rackie’s background? Rackie said:
“I’ve been the CEO of Keyfactor for five and a half years now. Since I’ve taken the helm, I have led the company through pivotal moments that were key to Keyfactor’s award-winning growth. One such event was leading our M&A transaction with PrimeKey in 2021. At this point, the business had grown from $7 million to $150+ million in revenue, and this deal further cemented Keyfactor’s position as a leader in digital trust. In October 2023, I led Keyfactor through its secondary funding round, which brought the company to a $1.3 billion valuation. We’ve grown another 50%+ since that funding round.”
“Prior to joining Keyfactor as CEO in May 2019, most of my background was in sales. My expertise lay in developing and leading modern go-to-market teams and strategies, having led multiple companies through large-scale growth. Before Keyfactor, I served as SVP of Global Revenue at Tricentis, following its merger with QASymphony, where I was Chief Revenue Officer.”
“Joining Keyfactor provided me with the opportunity to step into the CEO role for the first time. Over the past five years, I’ve helped navigate Keyfactor through a pandemic, geopolitical tensions, and economic swings – and through it all, the team has achieved highly aggressive growth targets and sustained the highest levels of customer satisfaction.”
Services Offered
Can you tell me a little bit more about what Keyfactor offers? Rackie shared:
“At Keyfactor, we specialize in ensuring that everything in an organization—whether it’s devices like laptops, workloads, or machines—has the security it needs to operate seamlessly and securely. Our platform uses a technology called Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and digital certificates to establish trust for communications. While PKI has been around for a while, what’s changed in recent years is the increasing complexity organizations face with cloud, hybrid cloud, containerization, and preparing for post-quantum security. These shifts demand a modern, scalable solution. Without it, organizations risk breaches, outages, and a breakdown in trust, which is where we step in to help.”
“Over the course of the last 20+ years, Keyfactor has set the industry standard for strong public key infrastructure (PKI) management, guided by an overarching mission to empower organizations worldwide to establish digital trust with identity-first security for every human and machine. Today, Keyfactor is trusted by more than 1,500 organizations globally.”
“Our entire product suite is designed to help companies establish digital trust by securing every machine and digital transaction with a trusted identity – whether through PKI, certificate lifecycle management, or code signing.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is Keyfactor pursuing? Rackie assessed:
“The need for secure digital trust solutions is growing exponentially. The global PKI market is projected to reach $13.8 billion by 2028, and the global digital identity and access management market will double in that time to nearly $40 billion. This growth is being propelled by a convergence of factors in today’s digitally connected world, including the proliferation of mobile devices within organizations, the increasing use of AI/GenAI technology, and the widespread adoption of IoT devices.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Keyfactor from its competition? Rackie affirmed:
“The requirements for security and agility in organizations have changed drastically, especially over the last five years. As businesses embrace cloud, hybrid cloud, and containerization, they need solutions that offer more flexibility, agility, and scalability than ever before. Keyfactor was purpose-built to meet these evolving demands, ensuring organizations can keep pace with the growing complexity of securing their environments.”
“Keyfactor stands out with an unmatched depth and scalability across our offerings, built specifically to handle the immense scale of machine identities required today. While competitors often rely on legacy architectures designed for smaller volumes, Keyfactor’s technology supports hundreds of millions of private certificates, meeting the demands of modern enterprises who are managing more identities than ever before.”
“In competitive evaluations, customers have recognized Keyfactor’s ability to secure and manage a vast number of unique, organization-specific identities, well beyond the limits of human identity management.”
“A nice proof point to this is Keyfactor’s recognition in the 2024 Frost Radar for PKI-as-a-Service (PKIaaS). The report compared nine leading PKIaaS vendors and, according to Frost & Sullivan, our adaptability, operational flexibility, and intelligence put us ahead of the competition. The consistent, unwavering commitment we have to our customers and our acute focus on their needs plays a big part in this.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of Keyfactor’s most significant milestones? Rackie cited:
“Our strategic merger with PrimeKey resulted in the creation of the first and only solution capable of managing end-to-end identities at scale. This has paid off tremendously, enabling Keyfactor to deliver unparalleled value to our customers as they navigate increasingly complex security challenges.”
“Since then, one of the biggest milestones we celebrated was the significant investment we secured from Sixth Street Growth in October 2023, which increased our valuation to approximately $1.3 billion at the time. This led to Keyfactor earning a spot on the highly esteemed Crunchbase Unicorn Board, a curated list of the most valuable private companies in the world. That recognition is a testament to the hard work and innovation of our entire team, validating our mission and enhancing our visibility to attract top talent and partnerships. Since that investment, our business has grown 50%. And our we’re still growing – in May 2025, we also announced the acquisition of InfoSec Global and CipherInsights, giving organizations a seamless path to uncover and fix today’s cryptographic risks and get ahead of tomorrow’s quantum threats.”
“As a result of these strategic steps, Keyfactor has consistently been recognized for our growth and innovation. 2024 marks the fifth consecutive year that Keyfactor has been named to both Deloitte Technology’s Fast 500 list and the Inc. 5000.”
Proudest Moment As CEO
What has been your proudest moment as CEO? Rackie reflected:
“The proudest moment for me has been witnessing Keyfactor’s tremendous growth firsthand. When I first stepped into the CEO role, I recognized almost immediately that there was an untapped opportunity and formed a vision that would transform Keyfactor from a successful upstart to a dominant market player. At that time, Keyfactor was around $7 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR).”
“The culminating event of this growth to date was when we surpassed $100 million ARR, which we announced in February 2024. And it’s worth noting that our monumental growth was achieved in less than five years – that’s not an easy feat. On top of reaching unicorn status just a few months prior, that accomplishment demonstrated Keyfactor’s clear position as a leading digital trust innovator and that what we’re doing is important and valued in the cybersecurity industry.”
Company Culture
What are you most proud of when it comes to Keyfactor’s culture? Rackie highlighted:
“I was fortunate to inherit a great culture when I joined Keyfactor, but I’m incredibly proud to see how it has evolved and strengthened over the years. Today, I’m proud to work alongside such talented and dedicated people who embody our core values every day.”
“We take immense pride in how we treat our team members, and that’s reflected in the recognition we’ve received, including being named to Inc.’s Best Workplaces list for five consecutive years. This accolade highlights our ongoing commitment to fostering an environment where employees feel valued, supported, and connected to our mission.”
“Our people team has done an exceptional job driving initiatives that celebrate our talent, like our ‘Key Contributor’ program, which recognizes employees who exemplify our values. Winners receive a glass award, a gift card, and even an option for a trip to one of our global offices—because we believe in going above and beyond to show appreciation, as Keyfactor’s success would not be possible without the collective dedication of our team. Their organic drive to provide best-in-class service and innovation is truly a cornerstone of our culture, and it’s something I’m incredibly proud of and grateful for.”
Future Goals
What are some of Keyfactor’s future goals? Rackie emphasized:
“Keyfactor has set the industry standard for strong PKI management, empowering organizations worldwide to establish digital trust with identity-first security for every human and machine. Our dedication to helping organizations rethink digital trust is what has led to us working with more than 40% of Fortune 100 companies.”
“Looking to the future, our focus will be on helping organizations make successful migrations to post-quantum cryptography (PQC). In August, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) finalized three of the four PQC algorithms, which are designed to protect data and systems against future threats posed by quantum computers. Even more recently, this November, NIST set a recommended PQC timeline to transition away from legacy encryption algorithms as early as 2030. As quantum technology advances, it’s anticipated that quantum computers could break traditional encryption methods, such as RSA and ECC, compromising secure communications worldwide. PQC algorithms aim to provide cryptographic security that can withstand the power of quantum computing, ensuring long-term data protection and resilience against these emerging quantum threats.”
“This change forces organizations to urgently rethink PKI strategies, particularly in today’s increasingly connected world, where companies are grappling with the migration to cloud-based infrastructure and expansion of online services. Keyfactor is uniquely positioned to support our customers in building and maintaining digital trust as they prepare for a new post-quantum reality; we have several quantum-ready products and a dedicated PQC Lab to test quantum-ready certificates. We will continue to invest in providing solutions that allow enterprises to build secure and resilient infrastructure that maintains the security, reliability, and integrity of their digital interactions.”
“And, of course, we’re focused on growth. Over the next three years, our goal is to exceed a quarter billion dollars in revenue and do so in any operationally efficient way.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Rackie acknowledged:
“Organizations are aware of the looming quantum threat. However, many have yet to make strides in their journey. In our 2024 PKI & Digital Trust Report, only two in ten (23%) organizations had begun planning for PQC. One-third (36%) of organizations expected to start after the first release of standards, which occurred in August. There’s still a quarter who are waiting for the standards to be fully finalized, which there is no concrete timeline for, and a shocking 11% of organizations are waiting to begin their transition once a quantum computer is capable of cracking modern encryption.”
“On top of this, organizations believe it will take an average of four years to transition to PQC, which is a severe underestimation if you think about the hundreds of thousands of cryptographic assets that a single large enterprise has within its environment. These assets all require rigorous testing with the new algorithms to ensure seamless transitions. Underestimating the time and effort required for PQC readiness will likely lead to delays, setbacks, and increased security risks as quantum computing capabilities advance.”
“These findings indicate a disconnect between perception and reality. PKI is critical to digital trust. While there’s no consensus from experts on the exact timeline for quantum computers being able to break all public keys schemes currently in use, NIST’s draft PQC transition strategy sets a timeline of 2030 for RSA and ECC deprecation.”
“This means organizations must begin their journey as soon as possible. Our challenge now is to educate organizations about this very real risk that’s on the horizon and inspire them to take action to protect their business and their people.”
Advice For Other Business Leaders
What advice can you give other business leaders who are beginning to prepare their organizations for the onset of post-quantum computing? Rackie concluded:
“Establishing a secure and resilient PKI infrastructure is critical to maintain the security, reliability, and integrity of digital interactions. This requires developing a PQC implementation strategy and taking an inventory of all cryptographic assets, among other key steps.”
“This is a process that takes monumental time and resources. Unless your organization has a dedicated in-house team for managing PKI, turning to qualified, experienced partners can help ensure the right people, processes, and tools are in place as you make the transition to post-quantum security, which will be critical in the evolving threat landscape.”
