Cyera acquires Oasis Security for $1B to secure proliferating AI agents and non-human identities

Cyera agrees to acquire Oasis Security for $1B to safeguard proliferating AI agents

Data security company Cyera, which recently raised $600 million at a $12 billion valuation, announced Tuesday that it signed a letter of intent to acquire Oasis Security for approximately $1 billion in a deal expected to be paid mostly in cash, with the remainder in Cyera shares. Oasis focuses on non-human identities, primarily AI agents. As the number of AI agents proliferates, companies must deploy cybersecurity software that monitors these agents' behavior and grants them permission to access other software. Founded in 2022, Oasis has raised about $195 million from Accel, Craft Ventures, Cyberstarts and other investors. The deal highlights a surging market for cybersecurity providers defending enterprises against AI-weaponized threats. Cyera, which shares investors Accel and Cyberstarts with Oasis, has been on an acquisition spree, recently purchasing Index Ventures-backed Ryft and the less-than-one-year-old Genie Security. Post-acquisition, Cyera plans to integrate Oasis's technology into a unified identity and data security platform. Although Cyera recently surpassed $150 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), the company is far from profitable, TechCrunch reported last month. The five-year-old company has raised about $2.3 billion in total funding.

5 Things To Know About Cyera's Deal To Acquire Oasis Security

The $1 billion acquisition deal aims to bring capabilities for non-human identity security to the Cyera data security platform. Data security startup Cyera announced Tuesday it has reached an agreement to acquire Oasis Security, a specialist in non-human identity security. Multiple media reports indicated that the price for the acquisition deal is $1 billion. Cyera confirmed the figure when reached by CRN Tuesday. [Related: Cyera Scores $600M In New Funding, Boosts Valuation To $12B] The planned deal would bring together two fast-growing, venture-backed startups, with Cyera founded in 2021 and Oasis launched in 2022. Cyera had announced in June that it had raised a $600 million funding round, which put the vendor's valuation at $12 billion. In March, Oasis had announced raising a $120 million Series B funding round, bringing the company to a total of $195 million in funding since its launch. What follows are five key things to know about Cyera's acquisition of Oasis Security. Unified AI Security Platform In separate posts, Cyera and Oasis Security said the agreement is aimed at bringing together Cyera's data security capabilities with Oasis Security's platform for non-human identity and access governance. The goal is to create a "next-generation security platform," Oasis Security Co-Founder and CEO Danny Brickman said in the post. Instead of treating identity security and data security as separate disciplines, the combined platform will aim to provide enhanced visibility into existing sensitive data as well as derive insights about which humans, machines and AI agents can access it, according to the companies. "Put those two things together and you get one system that decides what every human, machine, and agent can see and do," Cyera Co-Founder and CEO Yotam Segev wrote in a post. Focus On Non-Human Identity Oasis Security has been finding major growth with its capabilities for discovering and securing non-human identities, including those created by AI agents, Oasis Security President Michael DeCesare told CRN previously. Without a doubt, Oasis has stood out in the identity security market through its highly differentiated approach to visibility for non-human identity (NHI) as well as AI governance, according to Cyderes' James Hauswirth. Oasis is "very clearly the front-runner in NHI. They have been pretty much since they came out of stealth," said Hauswirth, global managing director for privileged access management at Kansas City, Mo.-based Cyderes, in an interview in June. Historically, a huge challenge with NHI has been around understanding how a non-human identity is being used -- and by whom -- before the efforts are made to bring it under management, he said. Oasis has addressed the issue with technology that can rapidly evaluate the context around NHI, including how the credentials are actually being utilized -- while also assessing whether they are being used by a human user, a machine process or an AI system, Hauswirth said. Governing AI Agents Another major advantage for Oasis is that the platform is geared toward addressing not only longstanding NHI challenges, but also emerging AI governance needs, Hauswirth noted. "Oasis is purpose-built to solve for both your general, technical debt version of non-human identity, but also AI governance," Hauswirth said. Ultimately, "Oasis solves the problem in a unique, scalable way that is deeply valuable to clients," he said. Data Security Growth The acquisition deal comes as Cyera continues its rapid growth thanks to demand for its product offerings in data security posture management, data loss prevention and products focused on protecting data related to AI usage and agentic security. The goal for Cyera with the deal to acquire Oasis Security is "to unify identity and data security into the most comprehensive platform for securing AI," Segev wrote in the post. Ultimately, "this is how agentic security must be built to determine what AI can see and do," he wrote. Partner Message In the prior interview with CRN, DeCesare said that Oasis has been driving most of its deals through the channel and is seeking to work closely with more partners as the company looks to scale up. In his post Tuesday, Brickman signaled that Oasis Security plans to continue focusing on partners, addressing partners by writing that "together, we shaped a category around it and helped the world's largest companies redesign how access is governed." Looking forward, "the best is ahead," he wrote.