SaaS Security Attracts More Venture Capital; Will MSPs Plug In?

by Joe Panettieri • Oct 5, 2021

Maor Bin, CEO, Adaptive Shield

SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) startup Adaptive Shield has raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners. Okta Ventures and Vertex Ventures Israel also participated in the round. Adaptive Shield’s business valuation was not disclosed.

Adaptive Shield’s software allows customers to find and fix misconfigurations and misappropriated privileges across Microsoft Office 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce and dozens of additional applications. The software also integrates with such IT service management (ITSM) platform as ServiceNow and Zendesk.

The overall Adaptive Shield platform supports access control, data leakage prevention, malware protection, password management, privacy control, auditing and spam protection, the company says.

The $30 million Series A round arrives roughly 14 months after Adaptive Shield raised $4 million in seed funding.

Adaptive Shield: Funding, Expansion… And Partner Program?

In a prepared statement about the Series A funding, Adaptive Shield CEO and Co-founder Maor Bin said:

“Expecting security teams to stay on top of SaaS Security misconfigurations without a proper SSPM solution in place is like expecting a bodyguard to protect an invisible person. Deep visibility and continuous maintenance of SaaS security hygiene is crucial to keeping the company secure. Thanks to this latest round of funding, we will be able to further evolve our SSPM offering while extending our reach to meet growing demands from businesses around the globe looking to increase their SaaS usage while eliminating any risk.”

Still, Adaptive Shield has yet to announce a major MSP or channel partner program. And the company is competing in an increasingly crowded market.

SaaS Monitoring, Management and Security Tools: Emerging Startups

Potential Adaptive Shield rivals that have already raised money include:

1. AppOmni ($40 million Series B);
2. DoControl ($10 million Series A);
3. Grip Security ($6 million seed);
4. SaaS Alerts ($1.2 million early stage); and
5. Torii ($10 million early stage).

Of the companies listed above, SaaS Alerts is most aggressively engaging MSPs. Moreover, SaaS Alerts opened its latest funding round to MSPs in September 2021.

Still, SaaS Alerts isn’t alone in its MSP partner focus. Another startup, called Augmentt, has designed a platform for MSPs to “discover, optimize and fully manage SaaS applications.” Unlike the companies above, Augmentt has not formally announced any funding rounds. But the company has MSP leadership in its DNA. Co-founders Derik Belair (CEO) and Gavin Garbutt (chairman) are N-able veterans who helped to pioneer the RMM (remote monitoring and management) software market and associated MSP recurring revenue models more than a decade ago.

MSSPs Embrace Cloud Security Posture Management

Meanwhile, numerous companies offer cloud security posture management (CSPM) software tools for infrastructure platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.

More than 40 percent of MSSP Alert’s Top 250 MSSP survey participants now offer cloud security posture management (CSPM) to their end customers, MSSP Alert’s 2021 research found.