Cisco Investments and Morgan Stanley's Next Level Fund contribute to the round
CHICAGO, June 29, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Summary:
> oak9, cloud native trailblazer known for developer-first IaC security, has raised $14 million in funding over the last 15 months.
> The latest round, led again by Menlo Ventures, includes two new investors - Cisco Investments and Morgan Stanley's Next Level Fund, while HPA tripled its investment.
> oak9 will use the funds in part to grow its free Community Edition and help launch a next-gen Security as Code offering to make cloud native security more accessible.
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oak9 Inc., developer-first IaC security leader, announced $8 million in an additional round of financing including two new investment partners, Cisco Investments and Morgan Stanley's Next Level Fund.
The latest round of funding brings oak9 to $14 million raised over the last 15 months. Previous investors Menlo Ventures, which led the round, and HPA, which tripled its investment in oak9, are also part of the latest round.
oak9, which recently shipped an industry-leading Infrastructure as Code (IaC) remediation capability, will use the funds in part to grow its free Community Edition and help launch a next-gen Security as Code offering – a game-changer that will allow customers to extend oak9's proprietary security blueprints for additional guardrails.
"It's a critical time in the IaC security space," said oak9 co-founder and CEO Raj Datta. "We're seeing it all over the market: companies simply cannot hire enough security engineers to ensure proper security in their IaC and cloud environments. Budgets across the industry are being slashed and many companies are short on talent at a time when we need more of it, not less. oak9 helps alleviate that problem, reducing both costs and exposure by automating security so you can do more with less."
"Cisco is committed to keeping developers secure and compliant in hybrid IaC environments," said Janey Hoe, vice president, Cisco Investments. "We are energized by the developer friendly security controls and compliance checks enabled by oak9. The architecture of seamlessly embedding security in the development process is congruent with how we envision IaC to be secured in future."
"We launched the Next Level Fund to identify diverse, disruptive startups and help them increase their visibility and accelerate their business," said Alice Vilma, Managing Director and Co-Portfolio Manager, Morgan Stanley Next Level Fund. "oak9 fits the description as a disruptive startup that is helping to lead the charge in the emerging IaC security market."
The latest funding round continues strong momentum in 2022 for oak9, which recently moved into a new global headquarters on Michigan Avenue in Chicago and opened a new office in India, one of the fastest-adopting IaC markets in the world. oak9 is continuing its 2022 push to add more talent to meet strong customer demand and growth.
"As the market's adoption of Infrastructure as Code has accelerated, increased security of cloud applications has emerged as a critical need that oak9 can solve," said Alex Brown, Deal Lead and Board Observer at venture capital firm HPA. "We've been pleased to see initial customers validate the impact of oak9's innovative Security as Code platform and prove out the company's vision. With recent enhancements to ease of use and speed of deployment, I expect we will see accelerated adoption of their security platform."
"Every cloud native business is tasked with managing and mitigating cybersecurity risk. oak9 solves the #1 priority for these companies by remediating security and compliance issues in real-time," said Menlo Ventures' Venky Ganesan.
Learn more about oak9 at oak9.io.
About oak9
oak9 secures cloud native infrastructure for developers. oak9's Security as Code continuously finds, analyzes, and remediates security and compliance issues in real-time, as changes occur in Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and deployed cloud workloads. oak9's proprietary Security as Code (SaC) blueprints support 20-plus compliance standards out-of-the-box including HIPAA, HITRUST, PCI, SOC2 and ISO27001. oak9's open-sourced Security as Code also enables security engineers to extend oak9 security blueprints for additional guard rails. Headquartered in Chicago, oak9 is a Built in 2022 Start-up to Watch backed by investors Menlo Ventures, HPA, Cisco Investments, and Morgan Stanley's Next Level Fund. oak9 partners with HashiCorp, AWS, and Microsoft, and actively supports the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP). Keep in touch with oak9 on LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, and TikTok, or visit oak9.io.
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Media Contact
Koemi Valencia, oak9, 773-569-8969, [email protected]
Matt McLoughlin, Gregory FCA, 610-228-2123, [email protected]
SOURCE oak9
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