Sqreen, a startup founded by Apple security veterans, raises $14 million series A round to protect companies using its ASM platform

According to technology research firm Forrester, application security spend will double over the next five years at a 16.4% compound annual growth rate, reaching $7.1 billion in annual spend by 2023. Sqreen is a pioneer of Application Security Management (ASM). It was founded by former leaders of Apple’s offensive security team to protect companies from hackers and bad actors. They saw the need for a powerful solution to modern application security challenges, with Apple-quality simplicity, design and ease of use.

To further protect more companies, Sqreen said it has closed $14 million Series A funding round led by Greylock Partners, with participation from Y Combinator and previous investors Alven Capital and Point Nine. To date, Sqreen has raised more than $18 million in total funding. In conjunction with the funding, Sqreen also announced that Greylock partner Sarah Guo will join its board.

Sqreen’s ASM platform, used to protect more than 500 companies around the world today, is a modern approach to security in production for web applications and cloud workloads. ASM leverages microagents embedded in applications to identify and automatically protect against threats in real time.

Founded in 2015 by Jean-Baptiste Aviat and Pierre Betouin, the San Francisco, California-based Sqreen is a real-time security solution that helps developers protect their web applications, APIs, and micro-services. It is the industry’s first provider of Application Security Management (ASM), unifying application security needs into one single platform, giving over 500 companies unprecedented visibility and protection in production. Sqreen enables developers, operations and security teams to scale their security without impacting engineering velocity. The company was founded by security veterans who previously led the offensive security team at Apple. Sqreen is backed by Greylock Partners, Y Combinator, Alven Capital and Point Nine.

Sqreen is easy to use and deploy. With no software code modifications, Sqreen can be up and running and protect any web application in under five minutes. Its unique hybrid SaaS architecture allows instant and safe deployment through smart microagents, without having to redirect traffic or install complex on-premises software.

Sqreen goes beyond the HTTP layer and uses dynamic instrumentation logic to detect malicious activities within the application. It provides unprecedented visibility into web application security and risk, down to the code level. Dynamic protection modules – ranging from runtime application self-protection (RASP), to in-app web application firewall (WAF), account take-over (ATO) protection – can be enabled with just one click. Sqreen’s RASP module is the most broadly deployed in the world.

“The state of the art for application security is outdated and complex with approaches that don’t work in production, slow down app development, and are expensive to use and maintain. Today every company is a software company, and Sqreen supports that by putting a scalable security solution in the hands of developers, operations and security teams,” said Sarah Guo, Greylock partner. “Just as application performance has become key to every digital business, and APM is embedded in every app that matters, application security will too. Sqreen’s fresh approach is a paradigm shift — a unique platform that eliminates the tradeoff between innovation and security.”

“Security is a must-have for SaaS and internet companies and organizations of any size that ship software for their business,” said Pierre Betouin, CEO and co-founder of Sqreen, formerly the leader of Apple’s security Red Team. “Security needs to enable developers and the rest of the company. It can’t be a silo that blocks or slows down releases anymore. We bring true collaboration between the developers and security teams.”

“Security is a core component for us, but I felt like a security beginner. It’s wonderful to work with Sqreen because I get accurate insights about attacks that we’re having and it’s very straightforward to see how we can improve our application’s security,” said Sacha Morard, CTO, Le Monde Group.

“Sqreen was very easy for developers to integrate and for a security product, they have a very good feel for the user experience – it’s pretty snappy,” said Jack Eisenberg, CTO of Swell Investing, an online investing platform and subsidiary of insurance giant Pacific Life. “We used Sqreen to quickly set up rules that let us prevent a lot of shenanigans. They’ve been reliable and we haven’t had any hiccups.”