Transcend is a leading privacy infrastructure platform that empowers enterprises to automate data privacy, governance, and compliance at scale.
By mid-2024, Transcend had established itself as a fast-growing privacy infrastructure platform serving major enterprises like Plaid, Brex, and Rippling. However, the accelerating “tidal wave” of privacy and upcoming AI regulation emphasized a need to scale product capabilities rapidly. The company required a transformative leader who could upgrade its product roadmap and operationalize privacy at scale.
In July 2024, Transcend appointed Krishna Bhat as Vice President of Product. A data and AI veteran from Kloudio and Alation, Bhat brought the technical depth and organizational foresight to guide Transcend into its next growth phase.
His appointment, led by AI-focused executive search firm Christian and Timbers, marked a pivotal moment—positioning Transcend to meet regulatory complexity with automation and intelligence.
Aligning Product Vision and Market Execution to Unlock Enterprise Growth
Bhat immediately aligned Transcend’s product strategy with its go-to-market (GTM) execution. The company had already appointed Luke Arno as Chief Revenue Officer in late 2024 to support enterprise demand.
In parallel, Bhat’s product roadmap delivered high-value features tailored for both large-scale enterprises and emerging startups.
In April 2025, Transcend introduced startup and mid-market plans bundling unlimited integrations and support—democratizing access to privacy excellence.
That coordination across product, engineering, and GTM functions fueled record adoption and substantial customer expansion.
Pivotal Moments That Redefined Product Evolution
Transcend’s evolution from 2024–2025 was marked by sequential innovation, turning privacy from a compliance burden into a growth enabler:
- July 2024: Krishna Bhat appointed as VP of Product to scale privacy and AI governance capabilities.
- Late 2024: Launch of the Preference Management system—producing a 37% increase in opted-in users and saving roughly 500 engineering hours monthly.
- Late 2024: Alignment with CRO Luke Arno to target large enterprise segments and optimize GTM strategy.
- April 2025: New startup and mid-market plans made privacy infrastructure accessible to smaller businesses.
- May 2025: Release of Custom Functions, a no-code integration builder connecting any internal or third-party system.
- July 2025: Launch of Workflows, a visual privacy automation tool enabling multi-step privacy operations without code.
Together, these milestones catalyzed Transcend’s shift from a growing startup to an enterprise-ready platform built for scale.
Integrating Automation and No-Code Controls to Power Scale
From May to July 2025, the launch of Custom Functions and Workflows unlocked massive integration flexibility. Privacy teams could embed controls directly into operational systems without additional engineering lift—extending coverage across thousands of systems rapidly.
One enterprise achieved compliance across 1,500 systems within 30 days, and overall, Transcend reported discovering and classifying over 6,300 systems across its customers.
Its zero-trust architecture and modular updates ensured scale, security, and adaptability under growing regulatory pressures.
This architectural leap enabled Transcend to handle billions of user data rights and hundreds of millions of automated workflows, reducing manual intervention and operational cost.
Immediate Impact with Quantifiable Global Results
Transcend’s emphasis on automation and usability produced measurable global outcomes. Clients saved hundreds of hours per year per project, improved compliance accuracy, and saw privacy embedded as a cultural practice across operations.
Surveys captured the results: 90% of users reported reduced risk, and 80% reported measurable efficiency gains.
The collective financial impact was profound—Transcend’s automation capabilities saved customers $409 million in manual compliance costs and powered 5.4 billion data rights operations worldwide.
These achievements solidified Transcend’s reputation, earning recognition from IDC as the fastest-growing privacy platform of 2024.
Building the Future of Privacy and AI Governance at Enterprise Scale
Guided by Bhat’s product leadership, Transcend evolved from a data-discovery tool into a comprehensive privacy and AI governance suite with 12 active modules, spanning consent, data requests, and AI controls such as “Do Not Train” and “Deep Deletion.”
The company’s architecture remains future-proof, ensuring enterprises can embed privacy at the system level and treat regulatory readiness as a competitive advantage.
As Transcend urgently sought a leader to navigate rapid AI and privacy expansion, Christian & Timbers proved the perfect match. Drawing on 45+ years in tech executive search and an AI-driven placement model, the firm swiftly delivered the right product leader, empowering Transcend to accelerate innovation and scale compliance excellence worldwide.