Snyk founder Guy Podjarny makes surprise return to board after chief executive exit
The founder of cybersecurity firm Snyk has made a surprise return to the company after the unexpected departure of its chief executive.
Guy Podjarny, who founded the firm in London in 2015 before stepping away last year, has made a comeback as a director just twelve months later, company filings show.
Snyk did not respond to a request for comment.
In February, Snyk chief executive Adam McKay said he would be stepping down after more than six years in the role as the cybersecurity firm entered what he described as “part two” of the firm’s “era”.
“This is a deeply emotional decision. I love this business, I hold this team dear, and my conviction in our mission has never been higher,” McKay said.
“But after much contemplation—and with the full support of our board—I believe the right path forward for Snyk’s next decade is to bring in a leader with deep roots in product innovation and AI.
“This next chapter requires a visionary, AI-immersed leader ready to commit their full energy to a multi-year journey of technical disruption.”
Snyk suffers continued losses
In its latest accounts, Snyk posted its tenth consecutive year of losses, with a pre-tax loss of £168.7m (£125.4m) for the year to the end of 2024, a fall of 4.2 per cent on the previous year.
The company generated revenue of $278.4m, a jump of more than a quarter compared to 2023, thanks to an increase in the number of customers from 3,900 to 4,500. The firm expanded its headcount by 9 per cent to almost 1,100 during the year.
Guy Podjarny, or Guypo as he became known to colleagues, was Snyk’s inaugural chief executive from 2015 before transitioning to the role of company president in 2019. A December 2022 funding round valued Snyk at $7.4bn (£5.8bn). The round gave Podjarny an estimated net worth of more than £600m.
Guypo then took a less active role on the firm’s board from February 2024, when he launched a new company called Tessl, which raised $125m after completing a series A funding round in November 2024.
Podjarny said last year that Snyk “continues to do well but I got drawn into the world of AI, and I’m an addict and I wanted to get back to an entrepreneur path on it.”