Clutch Security Raises $8.5 Million to Enhance NHI Security
Clutch Security has recently emerged from stealth mode, unveiling its innovative Universal Non-Human Identity (NHI) Security Platform. This coincides with the announcement of an $8.5 million Seed funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with contributions from Merlin Ventures and key angel investors. Clutch's mission is to provide comprehensive NHI security solutions, addressing potential security gaps without disrupting business operations.
Understanding NHIs and Their Growth
In the realm of technology, Non-Human Identities (NHIs) refer to things like API keys, secrets, tokens, and service accounts used within enterprises. These NHIs are pivotal in various environments like cloud, SaaS, on-premises, vaults, code repositories, CI/CD pipelines, and data warehouses. They serve as digital identities for applications and services, enabling them to interact without human intervention. The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has accelerated the need for NHIs as it automates numerous tasks and processes, thereby necessitating more NHIs for seamless integration across systems. Currently, enterprises may face a staggeringly high human-to-non-human ratio of 1:45.
Clutch's Comprehensive NHI Security Platform
Clutch Security offers a Universal NHI Security Platform that provides enterprises with complete visibility over NHIs, regardless of type, throughout their organizational landscape. The platform is designed to help security teams easily identify existing NHIs, understand their full context, and assess associated risks via an intuitive Identity Lineage visualization. This allows for the prioritization and remediation of risks based on severity and business impact, supported by actionable playbooks.
With Clutch, any suspicious or unusual activity related to NHIs is swiftly detected, allowing for rapid response and incident resolution. The platform seamlessly integrates with existing security workflows, offering Zero Trust protections to mitigate potential breaches proactively. By certifying and verifying all NHIs, Clutch supports enterprises in establishing a Zero Trust architecture, enhancing security while maintaining business speed.
Supported by Industry Leaders
In addition to Lightspeed Venture Partners and Merlin Ventures, Clutch is backed by prominent industry figures such as Nir Polak, founding investor and former CEO at Exabeam, Shlomo Kramer, co-founder of Check Point, Imperva, and Cato Networks, and Armon Dadgar, co-founder and CTO of HashiCorp.
Insights from Experts
Guru Chahal, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, emphasizes the importance of tackling NHI security challenges, noting, "As enterprise infrastructure becomes more automated, non-human identities are the weakest link, requiring innovative security solutions." Ofir Har-Chen, Co-Founder & CEO of Clutch, highlights, "We built Clutch to equip security teams with universal solutions for complete visibility, context, and management of NHIs, with the goal of leading the market in NHI security."
BankUnited's David Stender, CISO, states that understanding NHIs is essential for cybersecurity in multi-environment or cloud-heavy settings, with Clutch providing necessary visibility and context. Shay Michel, Managing Partner of Merlin Ventures, aligns with this view, recognizing Clutch's approach as essential and timely for addressing NHI-related threats.
