Aporeto raises $11.2 million to help build a more secure cloud

Following a week dominated by headlines about ransomware that locked down hundreds of thousands of computers, Aporeto scored an $11.2 million Series A round to help it build security natively into the cloud.

New cloud architectures like microservices deploy apps in modular, self-contained units that work differently from traditional technologies. Aporeto’s security relies on the new models, protecting the individual app rather than securing an entire system. If a system is down or a firewall breached, apps can live securely in the public cloud anywhere, said Aporeto CEO Dimitri Stiliadis.

“The problem of security is becoming a household story,” Stiliadis told VentureBeat in an interview. “I don’t want to sound alarmist, but I think we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg. The number of cyber security incidents in coming years is going to multiply. And the root cause is, if you think about how businesses develop software, security is often the last thing they want to think about because it’s not a revenue-generating function.”

Aporeto’s goal is to simplify software security to the point that developers don’t consider it a burden. The less complexity involved in security, the more likely it is to be deployed.

The recent hacking incidents are contributing to a perception that the cloud, which IT managers not long ago considered too risky for their tastes, is now more secure than traditional software architectures. “There’s a fundamental change in thinking that’s bringing a new discipline and a better security posture,” Stiliadis said. “The amount of effort that Amazon or Google is putting into the security of their data centers is much greater than an individual enterprise has the ability to handle on their own.”

Norwest Venture Partners led the round, which also included Wing Venture Capital, the firm that led Aporeto’s $3.3 million seed round in 2015. Aporeto will use the funding to help build a commercialized version of Trireme, the open-source security product it launched last November.