The 10 Hottest Cloud Security Startup Companies Of 2022
Investors are still pouring big bucks into cloud security as more and more companies migrate to the cloud
The headlines may be dominated these days by news of layoffs at tech companies in general.
But cybersecurity seems to be holding up a bit better due to the huge demand for more and better cybersecurity solutions – and cloud security is the most in-demand category of cybersecurity.
The reason for the high demand for cloud security: the ongoing huge migration to the cloud by companies still dealing with the recent rise of remote working and increasing use of mobile devices of all types.
The net result has been investors continuing to pour money into promising cloud-security startups, despite the economic headwinds that have generally made investors more cautious.
Some of the security startups are all in when it comes to the cloud, while others straddle the fence between cloud and on-prem security.
The following is a look at some of the hottest cloud startups that have made their mark this year:
* Cado Security
* Ermetic
* Flow Security
* Immuta
* Laminar
* Lightspin
* Mitiga
* Netskope
* Oxeye
* Wiz
Cado Security
CEO: James Campbell
Headquarters: London
Website: www.cadosecurity.com
Cado Security, which describes itself as an investigation and response automation company, last year raised $10 million in a Series A funding round, led by Blossom Capital, and the company has been aggressively pushing its cloud-native digital forensics solution ever since.
In July, the London-based startup, which was founded in 2020, unveiled cross-cloud support to help streamline cloud investigations. In September, it announced Cado’s platform was available in Microsoft azure marketplace.
Ermetic
CEO and co-founder: Shai Morag
Headquarters: Tel Aviv, Israel
Website: ermetic.com
Eleven months ago, Ermetic, a cloud infrastructure security company with offices in Boston and Tel Aviv, Israel, raised $70 million in new funding for its ‘identity-first’ cloud solutions.
Of particular interest to channel players, Ermetic has also made some key executive moves so far this year. In August, it announced that Toby Buschini, formerly vice president of worldwide sales, has been appointed chief revenue officer. In November, the company, founded in 2019, announced the appointment of Scott Hoard, a former Fortanix channel executive, as the new head of global channel sales.
Flow Security
CEO and co-founder: Jonathan Roizin
Headquarters: Tel Aviv, Israel
Website: www.flowsecurity.com
This past summer, Flow Security announced a $10 million funding round led by Israeli early-stage venture capital firm Amiti, with participation from, among others, two people who know a thing or two about cybersecurity: CyberArk CEO Udi Mokady and Demisto co-founder Slavik Markovich.
Founded in 2021, Flow Security’s new data security platform discovers and protects data both at rest and in motion, to or from the cloud, with the goal of providing companies with the means to protect cloud data through all aspects of the application environment.
Immuta
CEO and co-founder: Matt Carroll
The venture arm of data cloud provider Snowflake obviously thinks Immuta is hot, considering it was among a group of investors who earlier this year invested an additional $100 million into the Boston-based cloud security startup.
According to the company, Immuta’s Data Security Platform integrates with cloud data platforms to “discover, secure, and monitor your data to ensure that users have fine-grained” experiences.
After announcing its $100 million funding round, Matt Carroll, co-founder and chief executive of Immuta, told CRN its planned to “significantly build out” a new channel program .”
Laminar
CEO and cofounder: Amit Shaked
Headquarters: Tel Aviv, Israel
Website: laminarsecurity.com
Laminar’s cloud data security solutions attracted attention in 2022, most notably from major investors, who in June continued to pour money into the Tel Aviv and New York-based firm -- $30 million to be precise. As a result, Laminar’s total raised in just six months increased to $67 million.
Since emerging from stealth mode in 2021, Laminar has made a number of strategic moves, including its announcement in October that it had launched “Laminar Labs,” which was organized to help entities protect their most sensitive cloud data. The new lab is led by Laminar CTO and co-founder Oran Avraham.
Lightspin
CEO and co-founder: Vladi Sandler
Headquaters: Tel Aviv, Israel
Website: www.lightspin.io
Founded in 2020, the Tel Aviv, Israel-based Lightspin has developed a context-based cloud security platform for cloud-native and Kubernetes environments.
Named one of CRN’s “Emerging Security Vendors To Know In 2021,” Lightspin’s potential has attracted the attention of Dell Technologies Capital, which is one of the startup’s main investors. In September, the firm announced free access to its Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP).
Mitiga
CEO and co-founder: Tal Mozes
Headquarters: Tel Aviv, Israel
Website: https://www.mitiga.io
Founded in 2019, Mitiga is another promising Tel Aviv, Israel-based cybersecurity company. In this case, Mitiga specializes in cloud incident response – and investors have been impressed with its security solutions to the point of investing $25 million into Mitiga in June 2021.
Heading into 2022, Mitiga got another stamp of approval via Blackstone Innovations Investments’ participation late last year in the startup’s Series A funding round. In August, the company reported that threat attackers had discovered ways to bypass Microsoft’s multifactor authentication to maintain a presence in the Microsoft 365 environment.
Netskope
CEO: Sanjay Beri
Headquarters: Santa Clara, Calif.
Website: www.netskope.com
Having raised $300 million last year in new funding, Netskope, a cloud security firm known for its Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture, used some of its available cash earlier this year to acquire two companies – San Jose, Calif.-based WootCloud and San Jose, Calif.-based startup Infiot.
In announcing the Infiot takeover, Netskope launched “Netskope Borderless WAN,” based on its newly acquired Infiot technology, which has been described as next-generation SD-WAN.
Oxeye
CEO and co-founder: Dean Agron
Headquarters: Tel Aviv, Israel
Website: www.oxeye.io
Last year, Oxeye, a cloud-native application security testing company, emerged from stealth to announce it had raised $5.3 million in seed funding, led by More VC. Oxeye’s solution works by exposing vulnerable flows in cloud-native application code.
In May, Tel Aviv, Israel-based Oxeye announced the general availability of its cloud-native application security testing (CNAST) platform, described as a more advanced solution to identify customer code and open-source vulnerabilities in apps.
Wiz
CEO and co-founder: Assaf Rappaport
Headquarters: New York
Website: www.wiz.io
Founded in 2020, cloud security startup Wiz has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and pushed its valuation last year up to more than $6 billion. It’s not just investors who think its products have promise. It’s also the firm’s customers, according to Wiz.
The New York-based Wiz earlier this year announced it had reached $100 million ARR in just 18 months, making Wiz the fastest software company to ever achieve that feat, according to CEO Assaf Rappaport.