A lot of organizations aim to keep their systems secure, but that leaves a big question unanswered: how secure is the identity management system overall, and what about all the gaps that are not covered? A startup called Silverfort is announcing $65 million in funding to expand, which it believes is a platform that can cover those bases and more.
The company's platform is built to work with existing identity management software providers, as well as provide a layer of security across systems and hardware that might not already be covered by them. Hed Kovetz, Silverfort's co-founder and CEO, said in an interview that legacy systems and machine-to-machine networks are two of the most exposed.
Kovetz said in an interview that the market is realizing that identity is the next big thing in security.
Silverfort's funding, a Series C, brings the total raised to over $100 million, and it is being made at an undisclosed valuation. The last estimate was $150 million, but the company has grown 2.5x year on year, with 3.5x growth for the U.S. He said that today's customers include Singtel, Samsonite and the smaller ones. Half of the customers are based in the U.S., but they are not being disclosed.
The round has new backers and previous investors. Kovetz wouldn't say much about which investors were using its services, but it was a mix of both financial and strategic investors.
An interesting one to draw out from that list, however, is GM Ventures, which presumably could both be working with the startup to secure its own systems, which span on-premise and cloud systems, but also legacy software mixed with next-generation applications; as well as services that it might There is a lot of potential there, and GM seems to be non-committal in describing how it might use the tech:
The need for robust threat protection across the enterprise is more prevalent than ever before, as traditional network parameters rapidly change and new threats emerge. We believe that Silverfort's technology has the potential to stop future identity-based threats at GM and beyond.
Many identity management systems are put in place to help with security, and in any case many of them might be sold alongside or to work with other kinds of services to build a larger security stack, Kovetz and Silverfort.
Kovetz said that part of the reason for that is because each identity product, just as many applications themselves, sit in silos, and that is before one considers the different parts of an enterprise network. It creates an opportunity for a hacker to look for small gaps and points of entry. It's not like someone in a crowded place looking for a pickpocket, but also not looking for those who are protected.
Kovetz pointed out that Silverfort's approach is unique and patented. Customers aren't necessarily asked to give up their current ID management products, as he described it to me. Many of them may use Silverfort. It takes a snapshot of a company's whole landscape of machines and provides observation around all of those ID services and machines that are not covered by any of them to bring an all-in-one approach to covering it.
Silverfort is behind all the other platforms, which makes it like a second opinion. The legacy points are more complex to integrate, and it is in part where patented tech comes into play.
The company has spent years building a best-in-class platform to solve a growing security problem now gaining mainstream awareness. It is clear to us that Silverfort's strong momentum in the market is just the beginning, and we are excited to join them on this journey.
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