Cloud security startup Savvy exited stealth mode today and disclosed on the occasion that it has raised $30 million in funding.

The Series A round was led by Canaan Partners. According to Savvy, returning backers Cyberstarts and Lightspeed Venture Partners participated as well. The latter two firms previously led a $10 million seed round for the startup in 2021, the year it was founded.

Savvy, officially Security Savvy Inc., provides a platform that helps companies secure their software-as-a-service applications. The platform uses a browser extension to analyze how workers interact with each SaaS product. When users are about to perform an action that may lead to cybersecurity issues, Savvy displays a pop-up alert in their browser window.

“Companies can have the highest security budgets and the best systems in place, but if you’re not reaching the end user at the point of decision, then history will continue to repeat itself,” said Savvy co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Guy Guzner.

The first cybersecurity risk that the startup promises to address for companies is shadow IT. That’s a phenomenon wherein workers sign up for potentially insecure SaaS applications without the information technology team’s knowledge. According to Savvy, its platform detects when users attempt to access such applications.

The platform likewise spots cases where authorized SaaS products are used in an insecure manner. It can, for example, display an alert within an SaaS application’s account creation page if a worker attempts to sign up using a weak password. Moreover, the startup’s platform flags login credentials that are reused across multiple services.

According to Savvy, its platform can detect other types of risks as well.

The platform warns users if they’re about to change a SaaS application’s settings in a way that may increase the risk of hacking. Furthermore, Savvy is capable of preventing workers from accidentally uploading internal business data to a cloud service. It can, for example, warn users if they’re about to input sensitive data into a chatbot tool such ChatGPT.

When it detects a potential cybersecurity issue, Savvy notifies not only the affected workers but also their company’s IT team. Administrators have access to a dashboard that highlights the most commonly occurring cybersecurity risks across their organization. 

Savvy says its platform has been adopted by more than a dozen customers including several Fortune 500 companies. According to the company, those customers are using the platform to protect more than 100,000 active users. It will use its latest $30 million funding round to grow its market presence and hire more employees. 

Image: Savvy