Published: September 22, 2026 | 9:00 PM IST – Matters.AI and Cockroach Labs have announced a new integration designed to help enterprises identify sensitive data within CockroachDB deployments and determine exactly which users, roles and privileges can access it.
The integration classifies personal and regulated information at the database-column level and links those findings with CockroachDB access controls. It is available now to CockroachDB customers.
The companies are positioning the integration as a way for security and compliance teams to answer two increasingly important questions: where does sensitive data reside, and who can access it?
Data Privacy Requirements Raise the Stakes
The launch comes as Indian organisations prepare for the implementation of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules, which were notified in November 2025, with substantive obligations for data fiduciaries scheduled to take effect from May 2027.
Banks, payment companies and insurers also operate under sector-specific cybersecurity and data requirements, including Reserve Bank of India mandates.
Distributed databases such as CockroachDB are designed to replicate information across regions to improve resilience and availability. However, distributed architectures can make data discovery and access governance more complex when organisations need to identify sensitive information across multiple databases, tables, regions and user permissions.
38 PII Detectors Identify Sensitive Data
The Matters.AI and Cockroach Labs integration scans CockroachDB databases, tables and columns using 38 personally identifiable information (PII) detectors covering eight regulatory jurisdictions.
The technology can also identify:
- Payment card information
- Protected health information (PHI)
- Secrets contained within free-text columns
- Other regulated or sensitive information
Once sensitive data is identified, the platform correlates the relevant columns with CockroachDB’s users, roles and privilege grants.
This creates an access map showing which accounts can reach regulated information and what level of permissions those accounts have.
Mapping Data to Users and Privileges
The integration is designed to provide security teams with visibility into several areas of data access.
These include identifying:
Who can access sensitive data: Security teams can determine which accounts and roles have access to classified information.
Excessive privileges: Organisations can identify roles that have broader permissions than they actually use.
Data location: The system can highlight where regulated information is stored and whether it resides in a jurisdiction that may create compliance concerns.
The findings can be mapped to requirements associated with frameworks and regulations including India’s DPDP Act, PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, ISO 27001 and SOC 2.
Security Analysis Runs Inside the Customer Environment
One of the key elements of the integration is its deployment architecture.
Classification and privilege analysis are performed within the customer’s own infrastructure and under the customer’s IAM controls.
According to the companies, raw database records and sampled values are not transmitted outside the customer environment. Instead, findings and operational metadata are sent to the Matters.AI control plane.
For organisations operating under strict data-residency and regulatory requirements, keeping sensitive records within their existing infrastructure can be an important consideration when deploying security and compliance technologies.
Matters.AI Positions Integration as an AI Security Layer
Keshava Murthy, Co-Founder and CEO of Matters.AI, said the growth of distributed databases has increased the complexity of identifying sensitive information and understanding who can access it.
He said the integration with Cockroach Labs provides column-level visibility within the customer’s environment and is intended to function as an AI-powered security engineering layer for enterprise data.
The companies see this capability as particularly relevant for organisations managing increasingly distributed data environments.
India’s Data Breach Costs Continue to Rise
The launch also comes against a backdrop of rising financial exposure from cybersecurity incidents.
According to IBM’s 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the average cost of a data breach in India reached ₹25.5 crore, representing a 15.9% increase year over year.
Financial services recorded an even higher average breach cost of ₹40.9 crore, according to the report.
IBM also found that organisations without security automation took an average of 236 days to identify a breach.
Under India’s DPDP Act, the Data Protection Board of India can impose financial penalties of up to ₹250 crore per instance for failures related to reasonable security safeguards.
The figures underline why enterprises are increasingly looking for automated approaches to data discovery, access governance and security monitoring.
Cockroach Labs Expands Its India Footprint
The partnership also builds on Cockroach Labs’ existing presence in India.
The company has operated an engineering centre in Bengaluru since 2023 and hosted its RoachFest customer conference in Bengaluru in 2025.
For Cockroach Labs, the integration adds another security and governance capability around its distributed SQL database platform as organisations increasingly deploy distributed architectures for resilience and scalability.
Matters.AI’s Enterprise Security Expansion
Matters.AI has been developing its platform around automated security capabilities for enterprise data environments.
The company raised US$6.25 million in seed and pre-seed funding in October 2025, with the round co-led by Kalaari Capital and Endiya Partners.
The company describes its technology as an AI security engineer for enterprise data, with the latest CockroachDB integration extending that proposition into data classification and access mapping.
What the Integration Means for Enterprises
The partnership addresses a growing challenge for companies operating complex data environments: knowing not only what sensitive information exists, but also where it is stored and who can reach it.
As data becomes more distributed across regions, applications and database environments, organisations face increasing pressure to maintain visibility over sensitive information while meeting privacy, cybersecurity and regulatory requirements.
By combining automated data classification with database-level privilege mapping, Matters.AI and Cockroach Labs are targeting that visibility gap.
For Indian enterprises preparing for the next phase of DPDP compliance, the ability to continuously understand sensitive-data locations and access permissions could become an increasingly important component of their broader data-security strategy.
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Ruchi Kumar is the associate editor at Entrepreneur News Network and TVW News India, where she leads editorial strategy, brand storytelling, and startup ecosystem coverage. With a strong focus on innovation, business, and marketing insights, he curates impactful narratives that spotlight India’s evolving entrepreneurial landscape. She has written extensively on fintech, AI and emerging startups.