Blackstone backs Veza to reduce cyberattacks

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."