Cybersecurity startup Grip raises $19 million in Series A nine months after founding

Cybersecurity company Grip Security, founded in February of this year, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $19 million in Series A funding, taking it to a total of $25 million in just nine months since its inception. The round was led by Intel Capital with participation from existing investor YL Ventures, who led Grip’s $6 million Seed round in April this year.

Due to rapid adoption of SaaS over the past decade, organizations today rely on hundreds, if not thousands, of business-critical applications, with access to all sensitive organizational assets production environments, customer data, sales information, source code and more. While crucial for business, this reliance creates a new and evolving risk surface, which Grip’s platform aims to secure.

Grip Security was founded by Lior Yaari (CEO), Idan Fast (CTO), and Alon Shenkler (VP R&D) in February 2021. Grip intends to triple its headcount in 2022 from 25 employees today to more than 75, accelerate product development and expand its go-to-market in the U.S.

Grip’s automated solution discovers shadow applications and dormant accounts that have ungoverned continued access to customer data, production environments and more. Grip provides customers with rapidly deployed solutions for access management and data governance that look beyond CASBs and web gateways.

“SaaS is self-service, with the barrier of adoption being only a signup form,” said Lior Yaari, CEO and co-founder of Grip Security. “This leaves CISOs in a frustrating position. With existing inadequate solutions, CISOs must place barriers to SaaS adoption or prohibit it entirely in order to secure their organization, impeding innovation. We believe a self-service problem requires a self-governing solution.”