ConductorOne: Beyond IAM, to Modern Access Governance
Our investment in ConductorOne
We are thrilled to announce our investment in ConductorOne, part of a $15M Series A led by Accel, and support our friends Alex Bovee and Paul Querna as they embark on their journey to solve one of the longest-standing and thorniest problems in identity security: access governance and compliance.
Beyond IAM on the Journey to Least Privilege
Over the last decade, identity has gained increasing prominence in security. User credentials are one of the most common attack vectors, and the proliferation of the cloud has inverted the traditional perimeter-based approach to security. This has led to the “Zero Trust” philosophy to securing sensitive resources. Budgets for identity-related products and services are keeping pace, given the prevalence of identity as an attack vector and its role as a weak link in the security chain. Customer spend in the broader identity and access management category grew from $12B in 2020 to $13.9B in 2021.
While core “IAM” (identity and access management) is addressed by companies like Okta, adjacent identity problems around “identity governance” remain unsolved. This includes the problem of ensuring employees and contractors have access to just the right apps, and enabling security teams to have visibility into who truly has access to what.
ConductorOne’s approach to this problem is to automate manual workflows, build a deep bench of integrations, and provide a modern UX that has been sorely lacking in this category. These and other innovations provide the security team with real-time visibility into all permissions, automate “least privilege”, and unlock access reviews for audit and compliance purposes that take just a few clicks (vs. weeks).
Building a compelling solution in this category requires extraordinary founders who know the market inside out and are uniquely positioned to sell their vision to customers, partners, and employees. Luckily, Alex Bovee and Paul Querna are two of the best people in the world to tackle this problem.
Arpan had the privilege of working closely with both Alex and Paul for years at Okta. Alex previously led Okta’s zero trust security products, and Paul was founder of ScaleFT which Okta acquired in 2018. Based on our deep relationships with the team and first hand knowledge of their leadership, product insight, and the size of this market, we are thrilled at the opportunity to partner with them again!
Cloud-forward organizations that are just beginning to feel the pain of identity governance and are asking whether there is a better way should try C1’s platform today. As the ConductorOne team says, “identity security and compliance is in desperate need of a modern touch”. We’re excited to join Accel, Fuel Capital, Fathom Capital, Active Capital, and a group of extraordinary angels as Alex, Paul and the C1 team help ease this pain with a product that delivers the goods.
Garuda Ventures is a B2B-focused, pre-seed and seed-stage venture firm. Subscribe below to get the latest from us, and visit garuda.vc to learn more.