API Cybersecurity Firm Salt Security Closes $20 Million Series A Funding Round

Israeli-founded API cybersecurity company Salt Security has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Tenaya Capital, a venture firm that has provided early and growth-stage capital to businesses like Armis, Palo Alto Networks, Lyft, and Kayak, the firm announced on Tuesday. 

Existing investors Haim Sadger and Aya Peterburg, co-founders of S Capital, formerly Sequoia, as well as independent investor Marius Nacht, co-founder and chairman of Check Point Software also participated in this round. 

Founded in 2016,  Salt has developed an API threat protection solution that detects vulnerabilities and provides prioritized insights to eliminate risk. It raised a total of $30 million in equity financing to date and maintains offices in Israel and Palo Alto, California.

The infusion of capital will enable Salt Security to continue “investing in its product development and innovation, address new cases, and expand sales and marketing to meet increasing demand,” the company said. 

Proxy-based solutions leveraging signatures and pattern matching have been used to secure web applications in the past, but Salt Security’s innovative approach to securing APIs puts big data and patented AI front and center, revolutionizing application security and supporting the global push to digital transformation. The company’s technology has been integrated successfully into City National Bank, TripActions and Armis, among others, making it safe to innovate by protecting the APIs at the core of innovation and digital transformation found in every SaaS, web, mobile, microservices, and IoT application.

“Salt Security prevents attacks that are impossible to detect with traditional security point-products,” said Roey Eliyahu, co-founder and CEO of Salt Security. “We are the only vendor in the space that can protect against all threats listed on the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) API Security Top 10 in addition to other increasing API-related security risks. Our expanding customer base is firmly focused on driving digital transformation, and our solution enables them to innovate and confidently secure the APIs driving critical technological advancements for their business.”

Tom Banahan, Partner, Tenaya Capital, has joined Salt Security’s board of directors.

“We are thrilled to partner with Salt Security to actively support its rapid growth and focus on product innovation,” said Banahan. “The company’s leadership team has a deep background in the cybersecurity industry, including members of the elite IDF cyber unit as well as serial entrepreneurs who have experience building enterprise-grade products and growing companies with over $100 million in revenue. We believe Salt Security is uniquely positioned to lead and define the emerging category of API security and strategy.”