Blackstone backs Veza to reduce cyberattacks
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Veza, an enterprise cybersecurity startup focused on cloud permissions and access management, tells Axios it raised $5 million in new Series C funding from Blackstone at around a $500 million valuation.
Why it matters: Many of the most devastating hacks, like the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, are born of one employee having amassed access to more data and systems than they require.
- Veza's SaaS provides companies with a dashboard that maps out all of those permissions, to help them better protect against single points of failure and to write new access rules.
Backstory: Blackstone originally worked with Veza as a customer, seeking better visibility into its Snowflake data lake. It then asked to invest, via a balance sheet investment group called Blackstone Innovation Investments (which also is how Blackstone first backed Cylance, before later leading a growth equity round).
- Veza didn't feel able to accept the full investment request from Blackstone, but did re-open its Series C round — which previously closed in April on around $48 million led by Accel.
- Overall, Veza has quietly raised $115 million.
What they're saying: Adam Fletcher, Blackstone's chief security officer, tells Axios: "Identity and access management is something organizations are always trying to enhance and improve because, when you think about how breaches often occur, it's usually because they gain access to a regular user's credentials."
