A longtime cybersecurity executive is coming out of retirement to launch a startup that helps enterprises monitor and adapt employee permissions.
Jim Alkove co-founded Oleria, an enterprise access management platform to protect sensitive data and reduce workflow frictions. The Seattle startup emerged from stealth mode Tuesday, announcing a seed round of $8 million led by Salesforce Ventures, the venture capital arm of Salesforce.
Alkove started the company after retiring last year from Salesforce, where he was chief trust officer, responsible for enterprise-wide information security and compliance. He also held multiple board seats, including an advisory position with the World Economic Forum’s Global Center for Cybersecurity, among other roles.
Alkove teamed up with Jagadeesh Kunda, a former chief product officer at Colorado-based cloud directory platform JumpCloud. Kunda also held engineering leadership roles at Salesforce, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft.
Enterprises can encounter challenges in managing employee access due to the complexity and time-consuming nature of existing access management systems. Alkove said these platforms require manual effort involving the use of multiple tools, and they often have static permissions that do not adjust to changes in employee job positions, leading to security risks and frictions.
Oleria developed software that adjusts to changing permissions and contexts as employees move within the company, with user experience features in mind. The platform is designed to continually evaluate and verify the individuals, applications, and assets involved in every digital interaction.
The startup plans to release a pilot version of the platform to customers in the coming months, Alkove said.
Companies of all sizes are facing an increasing number of cyber threats, pressuring companies to invest heavily in their security systems. McKinsey and Co. predicts businesses will spend more than $100 billion on related services by 2025.
“Cybersecurity is an incredibly important part of the overall constellation of things that enable organizations to maintain trust with their stakeholders,” Alkove said.
Oleria’s initial clients will likely be larger enterprises with digital security teams, but it plans to eventually expand to small and medium-sized businesses, Alkove said. Oleria will compete with established players such as Okta, Auth0, Microsoft Azure AD, AWS IAM and JumpCloud, among others.
The startup, which has fewer than 10 employees, will use its fresh cash to increase headcount.
Salesforce Ventures’ investment in the startup is a significant endorsement. Its portfolio includes DocuSign, Snowflake, Stripe, and Zoom, among others. Other investors in the round include Tapestry VC and several angel investors from the tech and cybersecurity sectors.
