Anshu Bansal

Co-Founder & CEO CloudDefense.AI

Last Reviewed: September 19, 2026

Executive Summary

Anshu “Andy” Bansal is a Silicon Valley software engineer turned repeat founder. He co-founded CloudDefense.AI, a cloud-native application security company, and has led it as chief executive; the Delaware entity behind it, Cloud Application Security Inc., filed its first Form D in October 2019 with Bansal named as an executive officer. Before that he co-founded HyreCar, the car-sharing marketplace for rideshare drivers, where he was Chief Technology Officer for three years and then Chairman of the Board, taking the company onto Nasdaq in June 2018. His earlier career was spent inside large software companies — a management role at Amazon, and positions at Microsoft, Expedia and H&R Block — alongside a string of side ventures: an Indian e-commerce site, an iPhone app, and an IT strategy consultancy he founded in 2009.

Career Highlights

• Co-founded HyreCar in July 2014 and served as its Chief Technology Officer until October 2017, then as Chairman of the Board from October 2017; he resigned from the board in December 2018.
• Took HyreCar public on Nasdaq in June 2018, holding both a board seat and a ten-percent-plus ownership stake at the time of the offering.
• Co-founded CloudDefense.AI; its Delaware entity, Cloud Application Security Inc., filed a Form D in October 2019 for a $1.5 million offering, of which $1,075,000 had been sold, naming Bansal as an executive officer alongside Semin Valani and Abhishek Arora.
• Managed at Amazon from April 2013 until co-founding HyreCar, after earlier positions at Microsoft, Expedia and H&R Block.
• Founded Computer Engineering Corporation, an IT strategy consultancy, in September 2009.
• Co-founded the Indian e-commerce site jaadudeals.com and built the “Talking Toons” iPhone app.
• A member of the Forbes Technology Council — a paid membership programme — where he has published contributed articles on cloud misconfiguration, DevSecOps and AI-generated code through June 2026.

Professional Journey

Bansal’s career began inside large software companies. HyreCar’s IPO prospectus records that he held various positions at Microsoft, Expedia and H&R Block before joining Amazon as a manager in April 2013. In parallel he was already building things of his own: he co-founded the Indian e-commerce site jaadudeals.com, wrote a “Talking Toons” iPhone app, and in September 2009 founded Computer Engineering Corporation, an IT strategy consultancy.

In July 2014 he co-founded HyreCar, a marketplace letting car owners rent vehicles to rideshare drivers, and became its Chief Technology Officer. He held that role until October 2017, when he moved off the executive team and became Chairman of the Board — a non-executive chairmanship, as his Form 3 at the IPO confirms, filed as a director and ten-percent owner rather than as an officer. HyreCar completed its Nasdaq offering in June 2018 with Bansal as chairman. He left the board that December, six months after the listing; the company’s 2019 proxy statement records the resignation in a single line.

The company he left did not last. HyreCar filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware in February 2023, telling shareholders in its own filing that it did not anticipate they would receive any return on their shares. It was delisted that April, sold substantially all its assets to Getaround for around $8.1 million in May after an auction, and renamed itself HC Liquidating, Inc. Bansal had been gone for more than four years by then and had no part in it, but the outcome is part of the record of the company he took public.

By 2019 he was building again. Cloud Application Security Inc. was incorporated in Delaware and filed a Form D that October — a $1.5 million offering with just over a million already sold — listing Bansal as one of three executive officers. The business became CloudDefense.AI, a cloud-native application protection platform, run out of Palo Alto, and Bansal has described himself as its co-founder and chief executive consistently since, including in contributed writing published as recently as June 2026.

What is no longer clear is the company’s independence. As of September 2026 the clouddefense.ai domain permanently redirects to AccuKnox, a cloud-security company with its own three co-founders, and Bansal appears nowhere in AccuKnox’s published leadership. The most likely reading is that CloudDefense.AI was acquired, but no dated announcement of the transaction could be found on the acquirer’s own site, and Bansal’s position after it is unconfirmed.

Education

No education record for Anshu Bansal was found in any source reviewed, including HyreCar’s IPO prospectus, which gives education for other officers of the company. Three previously recorded entries — two degrees traceable only to aggregators, and a Stanford executive-education programme that is not a degree — were removed; see the internal verification notes.