Grip Security: SaaS Identity Risk Management Company Closes $41 Million In Funding

By Dan Anderson • Aug 25, 2023

Grip Security – a leader in SaaS identity risk management – recently announced it is raising $41 million in Series B funding led by Third Point Ventures, with participation from YL Ventures, Intel Capital and The Syndicate Group. This funding round 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.

The 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. And 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.

Business-led SaaS is largely unprotected and each of these apps is more susceptible to becoming a target that bad actors can exploit. And 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 amongst the current economic climate that demands careful cybersecurity budget considerations, CISOs recognize the urgency of monitoring and remediating this risk.

Since being founded 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, Grip Security 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 a clear vision to define the SaaS identity risk management market, the company plans to use the funding 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.

KEY QUOTES:

“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. 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.”

— Lior Yaari, CEO and co-founder at Grip Security

“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. 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.”

— Sapir Harosh, partner at Third Point Ventures based in Tel Aviv

“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. 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 become THE leader in SaaS security.”

— Ofer Schreiber, senior partner at YL Ventures, a longtime investor in Grip Security

“With the continued rise of SaaS adoption comes the exponential increase of cybersecurity threats. With Grip Security’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.”

— Sunil Kurkure, managing director at Intel Capital

“Grip SSCP is a cybersecurity unicorn-product with its ability to deploy in minutes and provide value from day one. 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.”

— James Fritz, CISO at NFP

“Employees are constantly signing up for new SaaS apps on their own and bypassing the official IT and security processes we have in place. 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.”

— Troy Wilkinson, CISO at a Fortune 500 company in the advertising and marketing industry

“We are excited to continue driving growth for Grip Security by leveraging our strategic ecosystem of more than 450 channel partners. 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.”

— Chad Cardenas, CEO of TSG