Valence Secures $7M to Safeguard the Business Application Mesh

Valence, a security startup based in Tel Aviv, has announced a successful $7 million seed funding round, aimed at enhancing the protection of what they term the “business application mesh.” The funding round was led by YL Ventures, with participation from Stonemill Ventures, the St. Louis Cyber Interest Group (STLCIG), as well as a group of prominent Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and angel investors.

CEO Yoni Shohet, co-founder of SCADAfence, and CTO Shlomi Matichin are at the helm of Valence, which strives to assist businesses in gaining a better understanding of the connections between their various enterprise SaaS and self-hosted applications. Companies often utilize Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), automation tools such as Workato or Zapier, and SaaS marketplaces to extract optimal value from their multiple tools. However, the development of the business application mesh, comprised of these networks, often lacks governance, potentially exposing businesses to security vulnerabilities originating from shadow connectivity, over-provisioned access rights, and unregulated third-party access resulting from the connecting of disparate systems.

Shohet explained that, in conversing with security practitioners and clients, the Valence team discovered an unmanaged and ungoverned world of application integrations, currently untouched by any present security solution. Valence targets the machine-to-machine connections crucial to modern enterprise operations, especially with the growth of automation and cloud migration.

A key problem that Valence addresses is the lack of a formal vetting process, which leaves businesses susceptible to unvetted third parties having privileged access to corporate applications and data. By scanning connections to a relatively small number of primary systems, Valence can locate potential issues, such as unvetted vendors, assisting its users in disconnecting these or even automating the process if required. Shohet noted that several customers have managed to decrease their risk surface by a significant number of applications within days of implementing Valence.

YL Ventures partner John Brennan praised the duo for their innovative approach to defining and creating a comprehensive platform to solve the critical problem of securing the business application mesh. Brennan emphasized the remarkable early progress of Valence, attributing this success to Shohet and Matichin’s impressive leadership.

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