Aserto Raises $5.1M Seed Funding - Authorization as a Service

Aserto Secures $5.1 Million Seed Funding for Authorization-as-a-Service

A recently established startup, Aserto, founded by experienced technology professionals, has announced the successful completion of a $5.1 million seed funding round. Investors include Costanoa Ventures, Heavybit Industries, and prominent figures within the industry.

Founders' Expertise and Vision

The company is led by Omri Gazitt, serving as CEO, and Gert Drapers, the CTO. Together, they possess extensive experience in developing fundamental identity technologies, such as SAML, OAuth 2.0, and OpenID. Last year, while contemplating their next venture, they identified authorization as a logical progression from their identity work, and a domain lacking robust developer solutions.

Gazitt explained, “Authorization hasn’t seen significant advancement. Access control remains rooted in early 2000s methodologies. We aimed to redefine authorization for the modern era of SaaS and cloud computing, recognizing a substantial opportunity to alleviate current challenges and deliver considerable value.”

Addressing Critical Authorization Challenges

Despite the emergence of other startups tackling similar issues, Gazitt believes their collective experience provides a distinct advantage. He emphasizes the crucial role authorization plays for developers.

“Authorization is integral to every application request. Each interaction with a SaaS application necessitates a fully operational authorization system, achieving near-instantaneous latency. Any delay introduces unacceptable overhead for the application,” he clarified.

A Policy-as-Code Approach

Aserto is developing a sophisticated service designed to streamline authorization processes for developers. This service provides granular control over role-based access, utilizing a “policy-as-code” methodology for creating, editing, storing, versioning, deploying, and managing authorization rules.

The solution leverages the CNCF Open Policy Agent (OPA) project as its foundation.

Current Status and Future Expansion

Currently, Aserto is collaborating with initial customers and is simultaneously expanding its private beta program to encompass additional organizations that could benefit from its capabilities.

Investor Perspective

Casey Aylward, leading the investment at Costanoa, recognizes a significant market opportunity and a capable team poised to capitalize on it. “I am particularly enthusiastic about identifying substantial ecosystem opportunities within the open-source landscape and directing our investments accordingly. I believe Aserto represents one such opportunity, and the approach Omri and Gert are taking to the problem and the ecosystem is exceptionally insightful,” she stated.

Company Origins and Team

The company officially launched in August 2020, following numerous discussions between Aylward and Gazitt over the preceding years regarding authorization and potential solutions. The team currently comprises six employees distributed across four continents.

Commitment to Diversity

Gazitt and Drapers both have backgrounds as immigrants, and their lead investor is a woman, establishing a foundation of diversity within the company. They are actively prioritizing diversity as they continue to grow.

“Having Casey, Martina Lauchengco, and Dana Oshiro involved is incredibly valuable. Their perspectives ensure we aren’t perceived as a group of men dictating solutions. It’s essential to consider diversity from the outset,” Gazitt emphasized.

Remote-First Culture

Although Gazitt and Drapers are based in Seattle, their team is geographically dispersed. They intend to operate as a remote-first organization, drawing insights from successful remote companies like GitLab and HashiCorp.