The Growing Security Concerns of SaaS Application Proliferation

Businesses are increasingly integrating a diverse array of SaaS applications for both internal operations and customer engagement. This widespread adoption, however, is creating significant security vulnerabilities. The risk extends beyond typical threats like phishing and credential stuffing.

A larger concern is the expanding attack surface resulting from numerous applications and the potential for security breaches arising from integrations between them.

AppOmni Secures Series B Funding

Responding to this escalating need for robust security solutions, a startup named AppOmni has announced a new round of funding. The company has developed a platform designed to monitor SaaS apps, analyze activity, proactively identify potential risks, and remediate issues as they arise.

AppOmni has successfully secured $40 million in a Series B funding round. This investment was spearheaded by Scale Venture Partners, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, ServiceNow Ventures, and existing investors including ClearSky, Costanoa Ventures, Inner Loop Capital, and Silicon Valley Data Capital.

Exceptional Growth and Customer Retention

This funding follows a period of substantial growth for AppOmni. Co-founder and CEO Brendan O’Connor reported a remarkable 900% growth rate for the company. Notably, AppOmni has maintained a 100% customer retention rate since its inception, demonstrating consistent value delivery.

Currently, the platform boasts integrations with over 100 connectors. These connectors link to platforms utilized by IT and development teams for managing business applications, such as Splunk and Sumo Logic.

Aggregating and Normalizing Event Data

Through these integrations, AppOmni aggregates and normalizes event data from various applications. Furthermore, it provides in-depth monitoring capabilities for applications where direct integration is possible. Currently, this includes popular enterprise solutions like Salesforce, Slack, Zoom, Microsoft 365, Box, and GitHub.

O’Connor emphasizes that the sheer volume of applications used by modern enterprises complicates security management. The inherent design of SaaS, prioritizing broad accessibility for both internal and external users, often leads to overprovisioned permissions for external parties – estimated to affect 95% of organizations.

Data Exposure Through Application Integrations

Compounding this issue, significant security problems frequently stem from indirect consequences, specifically data flows between interconnected applications. AppOmni reports that 55% of companies have sensitive data within SaaS systems that is unintentionally exposed to the public internet, remaining unprotected.

This situation, O’Connor argues, is unique to the SaaS architecture, differing fundamentally from traditional software models. He points out the absence of a traditional operating system or network directly exposed to customers.

Providing Visibility and Control

AppOmni aims to provide a centralized dashboard for simplified and clearer monitoring. As one customer described it, using AppOmni is like “turning a light on in a dark room,” illuminating previously hidden security risks.

Experienced Leadership

The founding team brings significant expertise to the field. Brendan O’Connor and Brian Soby, the CTO, both have extensive backgrounds at Salesforce. O’Connor previously served as SVP and “chief trust officer” at Salesforce, later transitioning to security CTO at ServiceNow before co-founding AppOmni with Soby.

Investor Confidence

The team’s experience, coupled with AppOmni’s demonstrated success, has attracted significant investor interest. Scale Venture Partners, in fact, initially discovered AppOmni as a satisfied customer before deciding to invest.

“Scale Venture Partners became an AppOmni customer in 2020. We know firsthand how powerful and differentiated the AppOmni product is when it comes to protecting our sensitive SaaS data,” stated Ariel Tseitlin, a partner at Scale Venture Partners. “AppOmni’s 9x growth last year proves that it is the market leader in SaaS Security Management.”

Future Growth and Expansion

To date, AppOmni has raised a total of $53 million. The company has not disclosed its current valuation.