A startup founded by Israeli army intelligence veterans has completed a $5 million seed financing round. Apono, which offers tools to boost security and productivity for cloud-based organizations, announced their emergence from stealth mode on Tuesday, stating that the seed round features 15 angel investors in the cybersecurity field.
Apono was founded in late 2021 by CEO Rom Carmel and CTO Ofir Stein, who drew on their combined two decades of experience in DevOps and security fields, which includes Carmel's positions in the R&D of the cyber divisions of the Prime Minister’s office and Stein's stint as an air force officer in the Ofek unit.
“Every day we hear about another company whose customer information has been leaked. The leading cause is inadequate privilege management,” Carmel said. “Companies are urged more than ever to deliver fast value to their customers.
"They cannot have permissions get in the way of employees’ ability to fix bugs, support customers or develop new features. Yet they need to be secure and compliant," he said.
"We come with the message that business productivity should not come at the cost of security, nor should security come at the cost of productivity. Our clients come to us because they are tired of compromising.”
The firm employs 10 people in their Israel development center and is currently hiring internationally. Their product is already fully live and used by large organizations in both the US and Europe. Funds raised from this round, which was led by Meron Capital and Booster Ventures, in addition to angel investors, will allow them to "maintain momentum and further build on their international business development efforts."
One of Apono's investors is Shlomi Boutnaru, co-founder and CTO of Rezilion and previously Cyactive, which was sold to Paypal. He said that, "as a founder of two cybersecurity companies, I can tell you that Apono is touching on a problem that every company is facing today.
"Their solution to securely manage access and permissions is something any DevOps can easily start using to make his company more secure and compliant."