About us

Murat Balaban is the founder and CEO of Zenarmor (formerly known as Sunny Valley Networks). Being a veteran in the industry, he spent over 15 years in building large scale commercial and open source products which are enjoyed by thousands of people around the globe. Zenarmor being the fourth in the line, he previously co-founded three cyber security startups. He was the co-founder of Vizyon Arge Teknoloji, a high tech incubator which gave birth to two successful startups; Surgate Labs and Inseptra Systems. Surgate Labs, which got acquired by Comodo Group, had been providing E-mail security solutions to large enterprises. Inseptra Systems, who attracted substantial investor interest with a Series A valuation of 18M USD had been providing enterprises with tools to visualize, optimize and secure their networks. Being an active member of open source community, Murat is one of the founders of EnderUNIX Software Development Team which in the time was the most active and productive open source community in Turkey. EnderUNIX promoted the use of FreeBSD Operating System and was famous for its open source software projects. EnderUNIX was a real school for geeks, and many open source gurus and activists have graduated from this school. Murat personally created and contributed to many open source tools and papers within EnderUNIX. Murat holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Asha Kalyur is an accomplished marketing leader with over 20 years of experience spanning strategy, marketing, strategic partnerships, product, and engineering. She brings a rare blend of technical expertise, business acumen, and creative vision to her role at Zenarmor, where she leads go-to-market strategy for the company’s innovative, endpoint-first SASE platform. With a proven track record in developing and executing product strategies, building high-impact partnerships, and driving growth in global markets, Asha has successfully guided teams across security solutions, networking, and emerging technologies. Her specialties include GTM strategy, product and partner marketing, messaging and positioning, PR/AR, and technology vision. Passionate about matching technology to business needs, she thrives on expanding into new markets, crafting compelling narratives, and delivering measurable business results.

With over 17 years of experience in IT and leadership, Lyal Saayman has developed a deep expertise in driving technology initiatives and leading teams to success. His extensive background combines both technical knowledge and strategic insight, making him a highly accomplished professional in the field. Before joining Zenarmor, Lyal dedicated his efforts to helping businesses build bespoke products and tailored solutions that significantly improved their operational efficiency and supported sustainable growth. He worked closely with clients to understand their unique challenges and deliver innovative results. These industries include automotive (Volkswagen, Ford, DAS, Grupo Antolin), manufacturing (Johnson & Johnson, Guhring KG), mining (Sibanye-Stillwater Gold), food and beverage, education, logistics, and hospitality, to name a few. At Zenarmor, he leads product management initiatives for our decentralized, Plug. SASE. Everywhere. platform, while also contributing to technical product marketing, strategy, compliance, and thought leadership.

Shoji Claus serves as Zenarmor’s Director of Customer Experience & Partner Enablement, bringing more than 20 years of cybersecurity experience across enterprise security, cloud-delivered platforms, and partner-led deployments. He operates at the intersection of deep technical credibility and customer trust, supporting customers and partners through complex security initiatives and guiding teams through critical validation, onboarding, and adoption milestones. Shoji’s background spans secure access, cloud and data protection, and security platform enablement. He brings a strong go-to-market mindset to customer experience and partner readiness, translating product capabilities into clear positioning, repeatable execution, and scalable adoption in high-growth environments. Known for calm, decisive leadership when the stakes are high, Shoji is deeply customer- and partner-focused. He is equally committed to the people behind the technology, fostering collaboration, and building trust across customers, partners, and internal stakeholders. He excels at turning complex security requirements into clear, actionable outcomes, enabling customer-facing teams to operate with confidence and equipping partner ecosystems to succeed in real-world deployments. His focus is simple and consistent: increase security while reducing complexity.

Dr. Rainer Zimmermann is Zenarmor’s founding investor, and chairman of the board. He brings more than 25 years wealth of experience in building, scaling and funding multi-national companies. He is a member of elite group of high tech founders in Europe. Dr. Zimmermann is one of the founders of world-renowned LHS AG company which was delivering billing and administration software solutions for telecommunications companies. The company went from 3 to 1500 employees, in just 7 years, having operations in Asia, Europe and USA. Company went public on NASDAQ and Neuer Markt in Germany, achieving a market valuation over a billion dollar. He later moved on as an investor in Internet Software and Telecommunications. He repeated his successes with his investments on 360T and ETH AG, reaching valuations over several hundred million dollars. Dr. Zimmermann’s investments are financed by an investment company he is personally involved in. The focus is in the field of computer software, Internet and Telecommunications. He prefers to invest in companies with an extremely sound technical background and in need for management and technical support besides financial help. Dr. Zimmermann has a Master’s Degree in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Bochum, Germany.

Mahendra is the founder of Secure Octane, a Silicon Valley based cyber security seed fund. He has invested in leading security startups in security automation, deception networks and cyber risk / insurance. Mahendra is the organizer of Bay Area Security Startups, a monthly meetup with 750+ members. He blogs regularly about security business trends in CSOOnline, TechCrunch, MIT Technology Review and Huffington Post. He is the author of two leading books on venture capital and startups - The Business of Venture Capital (Wiley Finance, 2014) and Startup Boards (Wiley, 2014) co-authored with noted investor Brad Feld. His educational background includes a B.Eng (Electronics) and MBA (Finance and Marketing) from University of Pune, India.