Entrepreneurs Al Yang and Adar Arnon met at Harvard Business School and quickly realized they had a common interest in cybersecurity.
“We are seeing an evolving business environment, and with it comes an unprecedented need to improve security processes,” Arnone told TechCrunch. “The importance of security has increased exponentially… [it’s] It's non-negotiable for technology buyers. ”
Jan and Arnon wanted to turn this interest into something more, so they started Safebase. Safebase was accepted into Y Combinator's accelerator program during the pandemic.
Safebase announced Tuesday that it has raised $33 million in a Series B round led by Touring Capital. The company helps customers fill out security questionnaires. A security survey is a review that organizations typically initiate before purchasing new software. It's a governance and compliance issue.
Security surveys are a painstaking process, and for more complex software, it can take weeks or months for your team to complete them. But Arnone insists that SafeBase can save him time through automation and AI.
SafeBase employs AI models “specifically trained for security document use cases” to read and interpret security information and questions, and automatically answer security surveys. “[Our platform] “Empower security, governance, risk, compliance, and revenue teams to make cumbersome security review processes less painful.”
Image credit: SafeBase
Since I'm a cynic when it comes to AI, I asked Arnon about the accuracy of these models. After all, AI is a notorious liar. He claimed that it is better because it “combines large-scale and small-scale language models” and “provides a wider range of answers.” [and]” How do you take that?
In addition to custom models, SafeBase provides an engine that allows businesses to assign “rules-based behavior” to customer access, as well as dashboards that show insights and analysis about a business's security posture.
SafeBase isn't the only vendor offering tools to automate security surveys and reviews. Rivals include Conveyer, which recently raised $12.5 million. Kintent. Quilt claims it can automate due diligence reviews in addition to security reviews.
Arnon didn't seem too worried. Perhaps it's because of his 700-strong client roster at SafeBase, which includes Palantir, LinkedIn, Asana, and Instacart.
“SafeBase has experienced significant growth over the past few years,” says Arnone. “Customers love the product, and adoption continues to accelerate. As more and more large customers launch trust centers to replace the need for tens of thousands of manual security reviews, the company We benefit from increased visibility across the board.”
Based in San Francisco, SafeBase has 55 employees.
The company's Series B round included strategic investors Zoom Ventures (Zoom's corporate venture arm), NEA, Y Combinator, Comcast Ventures, and Cerca Partners, as well as angels including former Salesforce chief trust officer Jim Alkove. did. This brings SafeBase's total raised to over $50 million. Arnone said a significant portion of the money will go toward expanding the team.