BOSTON, August22, 2023 – Grip Security, a leader in SaaS identity risk management, today announced it is raising $41 million in Series B funding led by Third PointVentures, with participation from YLVentures, Intel Capital and TheSyndicate Group. The investment would bring Grip Security’s total funding to $66 million and marks a major milestone for the company, further accelerating its go-to-market strategy and advancing product development. In today’s rapidly transforming IT landscape, managing SaaS identity risks holistically has become a pressing need for chief information security officers (CISOs) and Grip Security is uniquely positioned to address this critical challenge with its groundbreaking platform.
The current economic environment is causing companies to reevaluate their cybersecurity budgets, but SaaS identity risk management continues to be a critical area of investment. SaaS has created a world where data is stored everywhere and accessed from anywhere and digital transformation initiatives are accelerating this trend. The award-winning Grip SaaS Security Control Plane (SSCP) platform uniquely delivers a comprehensive approach to manage identity sprawl risks that arise from the widespread use of business-led SaaS. Grip Security’s innovative approach of leveraging identity as the primary control point delivers the industry’s most effective solution to discover, prioritize, secure and orchestrate the mitigation and remediation of these risks.
“Every company is experiencing the proliferation of SaaS apps and Grip has proven repeatedly that it has the best solution in the industry. This has propelled our growth during these challenging economic times because we are focusing on a critical problem that needs to be addressed urgently,” said Lior Yaari, CEO and co-founder at Grip Security. “This new funding allows us to accelerate our innovation as we further distance ourselves from the competition and capture the exploding need for SaaS identity risk management.”
Business-led SaaS is largely unprotected and each of these apps is more susceptible to becoming a target that can be exploited by bad actors. The compromise of one system or app can be subsequently used to gain unauthorized access to other systems, apps or resources, and this increases the company’s exposure to security risks. With nearly 75,000 SaaS apps available, the adoption of SaaS continues to surge and companies are struggling to implement effective controls to manage the identity sprawl that is created. Even amidst the current economic climate that demands careful cybersecurity budget considerations, CISOs recognize the urgency of monitoring and remediating this risk.
“At Third Point Ventures we look for companies at the early revenues stage that address large and growing Enterprise Technology segments and possess a clear technology advantage. As a firm, we have a proven track record of finding companies that solve the most critical cybersecurity problems and are able to execute their go-to-market strategy. Grip Security is a clear leader in SaaS Security. We are investing in the company because we see a tremendous need for their solution, and they have a superior product, which is proven by their accelerating market traction in this challenging market,” saidSapir Harosh, partner at Third Point Ventures based in Tel Aviv. “The company has important competitive contracts with some of the most demanding enterprises and that is a compelling demonstration of why we think Grip will be a sustainable leader in this growing segment.”
“It’s easy to connect Grip’s incredible velocity to the ubiquity of SaaS applications and the way it exacerbated the SaaS-Identity attack surface,” said Ofer Schreiber, senior partner at YL Ventures, a longtime investor in Grip Security. “But the true key to Grip's success is their unique capacity to meet this problem head on with unparalleled innovation, robust technology that meets the needs of the largest enterprises in the world and a go-to-market strategy that's securing major customers. It's been incredible to be a part of Grip's journey since we led their seed round and we are excited to continue supporting Grip as they becomeTHE leader in SaaS security.”
"With the continued rise of SaaS adoption comes the exponential increase of cybersecurity threats,” said Sunil Kurkure, managing director at Intel Capital. “With GripSecurity’s unique approach and emphasis on identity as the key control point, businesses are able to embrace SaaS adoption securely and feel confident that their data is protected.”
Since its founding in 2021, Grip Security has been on an extraordinary growth trajectory. Over the past year alone, bookings have surged by over 400%, indicating strong market demand and customer trust. Notably, GripSecurity boasts an impressive client roster, including multiple Fortune 500 companies. To support the company’s skyrocketing success, the workforce has nearly tripled. Grip Security's rapid growth positions it as a formidable player in the cybersecurity industry.
With the new funding, Grip Security is set to embark on an accelerated growth trajectory. With a clear vision to define the SaaS identity risk management market, the company plans to expand investment in its go-to-market teams, research and development and operational functions to scale the company in both Israel and the United States. The infusion of funds will also be used to expand into untapped geographic regions and solidify its position as an industry leader.
“Grip SSCP is a cybersecurity unicorn-product with its ability to deploy in minutes and provide value from day one,” said James Fritz,CISO at NFP. “The company’s platform improves security but also creates efficiencies and helps reduce overlapping product costs to deliver a clear ROI.With Grip, my teams do in minutes what used to take months.”
“Employees are constantly signing up for new SaaS apps on their own and bypassing the official IT and security processes we have in place,” said Troy Wilkinson, CISO at a Fortune 500 company in the advertising and marketing industry. “Using apps like OpenAI and other generative AI SaaS tools creates huge risks and the Grip platform provides my team the ability to discover and secure the use of these apps.”
“We are excited to continue driving growth for Grip Security by leveraging our strategic ecosystem of more than 450 channel partners,” saidChad Cardenas, CEO of TSG. “The response to Grip’s story has been overwhelming.“The channel community continues to embrace the company’s powerful SaaS Security Control Plane solution, which helps our strategic partners generate both license and service revenue. We are delighted to invest and help the company accelerate and scale its channel strategy to expand its market leadership.”
To schedule a demonstration of the award-winning Grip SSCP, please sign up here.
Read the Grip CEO and Co-founder Lior Yaari's blog post where he discusses the new funding round.
About GripSecurity
Grip Security is a pioneer in SaaS identity risk management, providing innovative solutions to help enterprises address the security risks associated with widespread SaaS adoption. The company’s SaaS Security Control Plane platform helps companies discover, prioritize, secure and orchestrate the mitigation and remediation of risks. The innovative approach of leveraging identity as the key control point allows companies to secure all SaaS applications and empowers enterprises to embrace SaaS adoption securely.
About Third Point Ventures
Since2000, Third Point Ventures, the venture capital arm of the asset manager ThirdPoint LLC, has pursued opportunities in multistage investments in private companies with exceptional management teams, sustainable technical advantages, optimal timing, and in opportunities where risk/reward are in balance based on disciplined selection, structure, and entry valuation. We bring deep technical expertise, a strong network of relationships, extensive go-to-market experience, and insights from our decades of global public markets investing to add value to our partners throughout their journey from idea to IPO and beyond.Information about Third Point Ventures and our investments may be found at https://www.thirdpointventures.com/.
About YLVentures
YL Ventures funds and supports brilliant Israeli cybersecurity entrepreneurs from seed to lead. Based in Silicon Valley, New-York and TelAviv, YL Ventures manages five funds with $800M in total assets under management. The firm accelerates the evolution of portfolio companies via a powerful network of Chief Information Security Officers, global industry leaders and a dedicated team of experts, providing tailored guidance and hands-on support on all critical company-building domains. The firm's track record includes investments in Israeli cybersecurity unicorns such as Axonius and Orca Security, as well as successful, high-profile portfolio company acquisitions by major corporations including Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, CA and Proofpoint. YL Ventures was ranked 8th out of over 250 venture capital firms in PitchBook’s prestigious 2022 Global Manager Performance Score League Tables, and was the only cybersecurity-focused VC to secure atop 10 spot on the list.
About IntelCapital
Over three decades, Intel Capital has invested more than US$20 billion in the future of compute, funding standout, early-stage startups across four key areas of the tech ecosystem; Silicon, Frontier, Devices andCloud. Intel Capital-funded companies created more than US $150 billion in market value in the past 10 years. For more information, visit www.intelcapital.com or follow @Intelcapital.
About TheSyndicate Group
The Syndicate Group(TSG) helps startups scale faster with revenue growth and new customer acquisition by organizing exclusive investment access for their strategic go-to-market ecosystem. TSG programmatically aggregates dozens of strategics(VARs, Integrators, Consultancies, CXOs) who arrive on the cap table as a single investor entity, creating a virtual army of individual contributors in the field who then have skin in the game and are uniquely positioned to deliver results.
