Data management startup Alcion Inc. today launched as it announced that it has raised $8 million in funding for its AI-driven backup-as-a-service platform.

Founded by Niraj Tolia (pictured) and Vaibhav Kamra, the pair behind Kasten, a Kubernetes backup company acquired by Veeam Software Inc. in 2020, Alcion provides Microsoft 365 administrators a platform to protect against ransomware, malware, corruption and accidental data loss.

The company argues that the high-value and increasing amounts of business-critical data stored in Microsoft 365 make it a prime target for malicious actors and new classes of ransomware. While Microsoft ensures the reliability and availability of Microsoft 365 infrastructure, it does not protect against cases in which cyberattacks or accidents lead to data loss.

Alcion claims that traditional Microsoft 365 backup solutions are often unaware of ongoing security threats and are limited to reactive action because they have not been designed with today’s threat environments in mind. That’s where Alcion steps in, directly addressing these challenges through threat detection, automated responses, intelligent backup scheduling and default delete protection offerings.

Under the hood, Alcion is based on Corso, Alcion’s popular open-source project for Microsoft 365 backup. The platform provides comprehensive backup and restores workflows, enabling reliable and fault-tolerant backups. The service also supports extended detection and response integration, such as with 365 Defender, for proactive backups, ransomware detection and intelligent backup scheduling to reduce RPO.

Alcion’s seed round was funded by several prominent individuals, including Lip-Bu Tan, an Intel Corp. board member and chairman of venture capital firm Walden International; Abhinav Asthana, founder and chief executive of Postman Technologies Inc.; Debanjan Saha, CEO of DataRobot Inc.; and Amarjit Gill, an investor at Nepenthe Capital LLC.

“Data protection is more critical than ever and, given my experience in building secure, scalable platforms that are also easy to adopt, the companies that are successful in this space will be those that can effectively balance security with accessibility,” Asthana said in a statement.

Image: Alcion