7 Cool Cloud Security Startups At AWS Re:Inforce

From the ‘holy grail of security’ to straightforward data protection tools, entrepreneurs touted a number of new cloud-security products at the Boston conference.

As customers have increasingly migrated to the cloud, the need for new and better cloud protections has also grown.

Entrepreneurs have responded by developing an array of new products to safeguard data in the cloud – and investors have responded by pouring funds into promising cloud-security startups.

A number of those young companies were featured at this past week’s AWS re:Inforce conference in Boston, touting their firms’ new products to channel players and customers alike. The two-day conference in Boston ended on Wednesday.

The following is a quick look at some of the startups at the AWS re:Inforce conference.

Baffle

With its headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., Baffle last year raised $20 million in a Series B funding round led by Celesta Capital – and now Baffle is out touting what it calls its “data-centric security” approach to protecting data.

Ameesh Divatia, CEO and co-founder of the 7-year-old Baffle, said his company protects data via tokenization, masking and encryption. Baffle also uses a proxy-based approach that prevents cloud carriers from seeing customers’ data, he said.

Though he didn’t release revenue numbers, Divatia said his firm’s business tripled last year and plans to double revenue this year. Baffle sells via system integrators and resellers, he said.

Lightlytics

Lightlytics is building a “simulated digital model” of the cloud – the entire cloud, with all its seemingly endless components – in an attempt to better predict potential vulnerabilities before customers deploy data to the cloud.

“This is the holy grail of security,” says Or Shoshani, CEO and co-founder of the two-year-old Lightlytics, referring to the predictive nature of his firm’s technology. “It’s really, really unique.”

Investors obviously believe in the Tel Aviv, Israel-based Lightlytics and its SaaS platform designed to help companies code and deploy configurations faster and safer to the cloud. The company earlier this year raised $30 million in Series A funding.

Lightlytics currently sells via direct sales, but Shoshani said he eventually wants more of his firm’s business coming via the channel.

Perimeter 81

How hot is Perimeter 81? It’s unicorn hot, after the Tel Aviv, Israel-based security company last month raised $100 million in Series C funding, led by B Capital and based on a valuation of $1 billion.

The company, which describes itself as a leading secure access service edge (SASE) and zero trust network access (ZTNA) provider, is led by co-founder Amit Bareket, who has said his firm’s vision is to provide “holistic security that is purpose-built for a cloud-first, distributed workforce.”

At AWS re:Inforce in Boston, Zachery Bagliore, channel partner manager at Perimeter 81, told CRN that his six-year-old firm is “starting to get more focused on the channel,” with about 300 global partners and plans to make the channel the “main focus of the business.”

Cequence

As Shreyans Mehta (pictured above right) sees it, Cequence’s main goal is to protect the No. 1 target of cyber-attackers these days: APIs. And the firm’s unified API protection platform is doing just that, protecting more than 6 billion API requests per day, says Mehta, CTO and co-founder of Cequence.

Late last year, investors gave the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Cequence another stamp of approval, providing it with $60 million in a Series C funding round led by new investor Menlo Ventures.

Cequence’s revenues currently come mostly via direct sales, but Mehta said plans are underway to move more aggressively into channel sales.

Very Good Security (VGS)

How can you not want to know more about a firm called Very Good Security? And, yes, that’s the real name of the San Francisco-based startup that investors obviously think has very good prospects moving forward, after providing hefty funding to the firm in 2019 and again in late 2020.

Mahmoud Abdelkader is CEO and co-founder of the cloud-focused data security, compliance and custodianship company known for providing protection for Payment Card Information (PCI) and Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

At AWS re:Inforce in Boston, Alanna Frost, global channel chief at VGS (as the firm is also known), said about 15 to 25 percent of Very Good Security’s sales currently come via the channel. But she said she’d like to get that number up to 60 percent in future years.

Polar Security

Tel Aviv, Israel-based Polar Security was launched last year with $8.5 million in seed money and high hopes for what it calls its “next-generation DLP (Data Loss Prevention)” technology.

Guy Shanny, CEO and co-founder of Polar Security, told CRN that a surprising number of companies don’t always know where their data is stored, either in the cloud or on-premise, and so his firm, among other things, identifies the location of all data and how best to protect it.

Polar Security relies mostly on direct sales in the U.S., but Shanny said he sees an expansion to the channel in the future.

Dig Security

Dig Security jumped on the public stage in May, emerging from stealth mode with $11 million in seed funding and a Data Detection and Response (DDR) solution already in use.

Dan Benjamin, CEO and co-founder of the Tel Aviv, Israel-based Dig Security, said the firm’s cloud security technology has already been deployed at a large U.S. bank and is aimed at mid- to large-sized companies in general.

Currently, most of Dig Security’s business is through direct sales, but Benjamin told CRN that the channel is definitely part of the firm’s future.

“It’s still so early, but we’re working on a channel strategy,” he said, noting Dig Security was founded only last year. “We’re big believers in the channel.”