Kodem Launches Application Security Platform with $25M in Funding

Headquartered in Israel, application security startup Kodem has officially come out of stealth mode, announcing a total of $25 million in funding to advance its mission of making enterprise security more robust and efficient. The Israeli startup, founded in 2021 by veterans from the NSO Group, focuses on using the runtime intelligence of individual applications to identify and mitigate potential risks.

The $25 million funding consists of an $18 million Series A round led by Greylock, and a $7 million seed round co-led by TPY Capital and Greylock. According to Kodem's CEO Aviv Mussinger, these funds have been utilized to develop the platform and prepare it for a global launch. Early adopters in the finance, insurance, and technology sectors have already begun to implement its services.

Applying comprehensive application security is one of the most challenging areas in enterprise security. The constant changes and updates in services make it difficult to identify and track problems consistently, with applications also becoming vulnerable to attack if used too frequently. As a result, organizations often lack the resources to develop in-house tools for managing these security threats. Consequently, the application security sector is expected to burgeon, with a predicted market worth of $22 billion by 2020, up from an estimated $9.9 billion this year.

Kodem was founded by CEO Aviv Mussinger, along with CTO Pavel Furman and Head of Engineering Idan Bartura. The trio previously held roles as security researchers at NSO, the controversial intelligence firm responsible for the Pegasus spyware. The founders believe that their exposure to the way attackers infiltrate enterprise networks has given them the insights to build an innovative security solution, which does not solely rely on flagging all potential issues.

By analyzing runtime data of applications and running models on the information, Kodem aims to improve application security by producing alerts only for relevant issues, specific to an organization's unique stack. By focusing on the small percentage of runtime security vulnerabilities, Kodem ultimately reduces alerts by 95%. Ashem Chandna, Partner at Greylock, comments: "Kodem has assembled an exceptional product team that is developing the next generation of application security – one that is cloud-native, deploys seamlessly, and provides the highest levels of accuracy with strong growing coverage."

Improving application security through runtime intelligence is an area where low-code platforms such as AppMaster could potentially integrate Kodem-style approaches, to offer enhanced protection for businesses in the no-code space. No-code platforms like AppMaster.io, which enable users to build backend, web, and mobile applications without coding experience, play a crucial role in a new wave of software and app development, aiming to make the process faster, more efficient, and more cost-effective.