Ankita Dhakar

When Ankita Dhakar moved to New Zealand in 2015, she had no professional network, no formal IT degree and no background in cybersecurity. Building a career in a new country meant learning quickly and proving herself in unfamiliar rooms, but it also gave her a clear view of how hard complex systems can be to navigate without the right support.

That perspective shaped the way Ankita later approached cybersecurity. Working with organisations across different industries, she saw businesses investing heavily in penetration testing but struggling to manage what happened next. Reports were often static, remediation was hard to track and security teams had little visibility between assessments. Before committing to a solution, Ankita interviewed more than 45 technology and security leaders across New Zealand and Australia, confirming the problem was widespread.

She co-founded Capture The Bug to make security testing continuous rather than episodic. Instead of launching a traditional consultancy, Ankita chose the harder path of building a technology platform that helps organisations identify, manage and remediate cyber risks through a single interface. Built without external investment, the business has expanded across New Zealand, Australia, the United States and India, growing its customer base from 12 to 35 organisations in the past year. Its customers now include fast-growing technology companies and NZX-listed businesses, while collaboration with researchers connected to the University of Waikato’s Cyber Security Lab is helping shape its AI-assisted security capabilities.

Ankita has also used her own experience to open doors for others. Her free training programme gives immigrants practical cybersecurity experience, with every graduate securing employment at organisations including Deloitte, Fonterra and ASB Bank.

As Capture The Bug grows, Ankita is focused on developing technology that gives organisations a clearer, continuous view of their security, while proving that globally competitive cybersecurity businesses can be built from New Zealand.