Strata Identity Raises $11M in Series A Funding Led by Menlo Ventures for Technology that Revolutionizes Multi-Cloud Identity

Team Behind SAML Web Standard Has Figured Out How to Unify Data Center and Cloud Identity Management Systems as One and Remove Obstacles to Multi-Cloud Adoption

BOULDER, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#AzureAD—Strata, the distributed multi-cloud identity orchestration company, today announced it has closed an $11M Series A round of financing led by Menlo Ventures and supported by ForgePoint Capital. The company’s founders co-authored the SAML standard used today to transparently provide cross-cloud identity and single sign-on (SSO) between web sites. Strata has built the first distributed identity orchestration platform, called Maverics™, to revolutionize the fast-growing $12B identity and access management (IAM) market.

Strata will use the funds to scale research & development, go-to-market, sales, marketing, and customer success for its Maverics platform. Strata also announced that Venky Ganesan, Partner at Menlo Ventures, has joined the company’s board of directors.

Businesses are increasingly using multiple cloud services. In these distributed environments there is no way to centrally manage identity and security policies across each cloud platform which all use unique identity systems. Strata has cracked the code by building a distributed Identity Fabric that bridges and unifies multiple cloud identity systems, as well as older data center systems, so they can be managed as one. This technology addresses both the $12B IAM market as well as the $142B cloud adoption and migration market.

In October, research and advisory firm Gartner named Strata a Cool Vendor in Identity Access Management and Fraud Detection, stating: “Although many applications are now cloud-native, moving legacy to the cloud can present challenges. The identity models expected by legacy are not necessarily those that are native to the cloud. Therefore, providing an identity orchestration architecture that enables lift-and-shift, with no rewrites or application reengineering, will enable rapid cloud adoption.¹”

“The cloud has created an identity management crisis, with companies being forced to simultaneously manage on-premises and several different cloud provider systems to enforce security policies,” said Eric Olden, CEO of Strata. “We eliminate this problem with an identity fabric that unifies the management of hybrid cloud environments through identity orchestration. Rather than rip and replace different identity systems, identity orchestration creates an abstraction layer that enables customers to mix and match identity technologies on different clouds easily, without rewriting apps, compromising security or user experience. This challenge has created a massive market opportunity. This funding will help us scale up.”

“Strata is addressing a massive pain point for enterprises, which only gets worse as they migrate more applications to the cloud,” said Venky Ganesan, Partner at Menlo Ventures. “The last time I got this excited about a security company was when I met the founders of Palo Alto Networks. Strata is going to transform the identity space.”

¹Gartner, Cool Vendors in Identity Access Management and Fraud Detection, 5 October 2020, by Jonathan Care, Akif Khan, Tricia Phillips, Felix Gaehtgens.

Strata was also recently nominated for membership in the invitation-only Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA) to integrate the Maverics Identity Orchestrator with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). This solution enables organizations to transition applications tightly integrated with legacy identity systems such as CA SiteMinder or Oracle Access Manager to Azure AD with no user experience changes and no burden on application teams.

About Menlo Ventures

Menlo Ventures is a venture capital firm that strives to have a positive impact on everything we do. That’s why we support businesses including Carta, Chime, Harness, Poshmark, Pillpack, Roku, Rover, Uber, and Warby Parker that are reimagining life and work for the better. Over 44 years, we’ve grown a portfolio that includes more than 70 public companies, over 150 mergers and acquisitions, and currently have $5.5 billion under management. We invest at every stage and in every sector, with expertise in Consumer, Enterprise, and Healthcare. From developing market strategies to creating communities, we provide real impact where entrepreneurs need it most. When we’re in, we’re ALL IN.

About Strata

Strata is pioneering the concept of identity orchestration for distributed, multi-cloud identity. The Strata Identity Fabric enables enterprises to seamlessly unify on-premises and cloud-based authentication and access systems for consistent identity management in multi-cloud environments. Strata’s distributed approach to identity enables organizations to break decades-old lock-in that has prevented a broader transition of enterprise workloads to public cloud infrastructures. The company’s founders co-authored the SAML open standard for identity interoperability, created the first cloud identity services, delivered the first open-source identity products, and are now building the first distributed identity platform. For more information, visit us on the Web and LinkedIn.