Tesseral, a startup offering open-source authentication infrastructure for business-to-business software firms, today launched with an announcement that it has raised $3.3 million in funding to position itself as a fast, secure alternative to in-house auth solutions.

The company debuts with an open-source authentication platform designed specifically for B2B software-as-a-service applications. The platform provides developers with a streamlined way to implement secure, scalable authentication systems without the need to build complex infrastructure from scratch. The idea is that by focusing on ease of use and secure defaults, Tesseral allows teams to integrate robust authentication features with minimal code.

The platform offers support for enterprise authentication standards, including Security Assertion Markup Language and System for Cross-domain Identity Management, for integration with existing identity providers. That makes it particularly suitable for multitenant applications that require sophisticated permission models and compliance with enterprise security protocols.

From the get-go, Tesseral’s platform has been engineered to cater to developers with full-stack web development experience and a working knowledge of software security principles. Though it doesn’t necessitate deep security expertise, it provides the necessary tools to implement secure authentication flows.

Core to the company’s offering is an emphasis on assisting B2B companies that find authentication challenging to implement and maintain given complex permissioning models and enterprise security standards.

“Auth remains a sensitive, challenging and yet ubiquitous challenge for developers,” said co-founder and Chief Executive Ned O’Leary. “For all the changes that will visit the SaaS industry over the next decade, authentication isn’t going anywhere and fast-moving teams can’t afford to burn time and energy building in-house solutions. Tesseral empowers startups with secure, production-grade infrastructure that’s fast to implement, easy to maintain and secure.

“The seed funding round included Y Combinator; Jessica Livingston and Paul Graham, co-founders of Y Combinator; Calvin French-Owen, co-founder and former chief technology officer of Segmentio Inc.; Steve Bartel and Nick Bushak, co-founders of Gem Software Inc.; and Mike Wiacek, founder of Stairwell Inc.

Image: SiliconANGLE/Reve