JSonar raises $50 million for AI-powered database security products

Database security platform startup JSonar today announced it raised $50 million, the bulk of which it plans to put toward R&D and go-to-market efforts. Notably, it’s the company’s first-ever round of institutional funding as JSonar’s customer base eclipses 5 out of the world’s 10 largest banks.

Database activity is a critical part of enterprise data security. But the adoption of cloud-based and dynamic, modern data systems make this challenging; legacy data activity security and logging solutions sometimes fail to transform data into actionable insights.

JSonar claims its solutions perform better because they’re automated and AI-powered. The models underpinning them transform petabytes of raw database activity data into security recommendations, with capabilities that go beyond detection and deliver preventative controls. They helpfully funnel these controls and recommendations into existing workflows, and into third-party DevOps services and platforms via prebuilt integrations.

Using JSonar, users can develop custom analytical algorithms atop large-scale databases and automate reporting and governance processes. According to JSonar, this saves companies months they’d otherwise spend developing proprietary platforms.

The JSonar suite supports virtually any database system on any cloud including infrastructure-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, and database-as-a-service setups. This includes out-of-the-box support for Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure, Snowflake, MongoDB, Cassandra, Hadoop, Teradata, and more than 60 others.

The database security market is anticipated to be worth $7.01 billion by 2022, Markets and Markets reports, and JSonar is far from the only startup attempting to corner it. Among others, there’s SolarWinds, which has been offering management and optimization tools for open systems and databases for years, and Netdata, which makes an open source database monitoring tool.

But JSonar founder and CTO Ron Bennatan, former cofounder of Guardium Database Activity (which IBM acquired in November 2009), believes his company’s reliance on automation sets it apart from the rest. “The rapidly shifting enterprise landscape, including cloud adoption, an explosion of database platforms, the pressing need for data security beyond only compliance, and years of frustration over runaway costs, has created a huge opportunity for us to rapidly expand,” he told VentureBeat via email. “Traditional database security solutions have proven to be too costly to be used broadly and provide little beyond a checkbox; the modern data landscape demands a new approach.”

Goldman Sachs led the investment in JSonar. As a part of the transaction, Goldman Sachs managing director David Campbell will join the startup’s board of directors.