Permiso Raises $10M to Revolutionize Cloud Security

Permiso Emerges from Stealth with $10 Million in Seed Funding

Permiso, a startup headquartered in Palo Alto, California, has officially launched, offering cloud identity detection and response solutions for cloud infrastructures. The company secured $10 million in seed funding to fuel its growth.

Founders and Market Context

Founded by Paul Nguyen and Jason Martin, both formerly of FireEye, Permiso enters a rapidly expanding cloud security market. This surge in startups is a direct result of the accelerated digital transformation experienced by organizations during the pandemic.

Despite entering a competitive landscape, Nguyen and Martin are confident their detection and response product is well-positioned for the evolving needs of cloud security.

The Focus on Identity

The core concept behind Permiso stemmed from discussions with early investors, notably Netflix. These conversations highlighted identity as a primary concern for organizations operating in the cloud.

“Identity serves as the central element in understanding activity within your cloud environment,” explains Nguyen in an interview. “It also forms the basis for building effective cloud detection capabilities.”

Visibility and Threat Detection

Permiso delivers organizations with comprehensive visibility into identities operating within their cloud infrastructure. This provides real-time insights into user access, actions, and changes occurring in the environment.

The startup asserts this capability enables straightforward and efficient attribution of activity, facilitating the identification of potentially malicious behaviors. This includes compromised credentials, policy breaches, and insider threats.

A Unique Approach to Cloud Security

Martin believes Permiso distinguishes itself from competitors. “To our knowledge, beyond internally developed solutions at leading cloud-native companies, no other product concentrates on anchoring all activity around identity, the associated resources, and their interactions.”

Permiso is designed to be accessible, described as “built by experts, usable by non-experts.” This is particularly relevant given the current shortage of skilled professionals in the cloud security sector.

Addressing the Cloud Skills Gap

Nguyen emphasizes the challenges faced by teams transitioning to the cloud. “Moving from on-premise systems to the cloud can feel like learning a completely new language, requiring a fresh start.”

The company initially focused on a niche market, but is now expanding its reach. “We initially targeted 1% of the market, achieving 1% market share. Now, our aim is to capture the remaining 99%.”

Investment Details and Future Plans

The $10 million seed round was led by Point72 Ventures, with participation from Foundation Capital, Work-Bench, 11.2 Capital, and Rain Capital. Key security industry figures also contributed, including Jason Chan (Netflix), Travis McPeak (Databricks), and Tyler Shields (JupiterOne).

Permiso intends to utilize the funding to expand its team from 15 to 45 employees and broaden its customer base.

Martin concludes, “Our investors have firsthand experience solving this identity problem at scale in cloud-native environments. Other companies are likely a year or two away from reaching this level of maturity.”