KSOC Raises $6 Million Seed Round to Definitively Secure Kubernetes

Company unites talented industry veterans, strong investors to address the inherent security gaps
introduced by the rise of Kubernetes and infrastructure-as-code

San Francisco – February 15, 2022 – KSOC, an event-driven SaaS platform built to automatically
remediate Kubernetes security risks and enforce least privilege access control across distributed cluster
infrastructures, today announced it has raised $6 million in seed funding. Led by .406 Ventures with
participation from Vertex Ventures US and Gula Tech Adventures, this infusion of capital will enable
KSOC to accelerate product development and grow its sales and marketing efforts. Notably, the
following individuals have contributed to KSOC’s growth through angel investments and mentorship:
Andrew Peterson, Founder, Signal Sciences; Carol Meyers, Former CMO, Rapid7; Jim Manico, Founder,
Manicode, and Grant Miller, Founder, Replicated.

As enterprises expand their cloud-native architectures, it becomes monumentally complex to manage
and secure containerized infrastructure. Businesses adopt Kubernetes expecting it will support
developers in managing microservices architectures, including the human and machine identities they
are tasked with owning. The Cloud Native Computing Foundation estimates that 5.6 million developers
worldwide use Kubernetes1.

Kubernetes is transformational and enables rapid development. However, the rise of Kubernetes has
increased the enterprise attack surface and made security the top concern for organizations moving
towards containers in production, as well as the most in-demand skill today. Jimmy Mesta, Co-founder
and CTO, realized early that at times Kubernetes could be more of a hindrance than a help as many
developers lack the security depth and expertise to adequately secure their workloads. Informed by his
work training Kubernetes early adopters, Mesta identified the best practices for Kubernetes security
that still enabled companies to achieve fast, agile development without putting the enterprise
environment or business bottom line at risk.

KSOC gives development, security and operations teams the ability to automatically discover clusters,
remediate misconfigurations, and securely manage access entitlements across any Kubernetes
infrastructure. Led by Brooke Motta, a recognized high-growth, go-to-market leader, and Mesta, a
pioneer in Kubernetes security, KSOC is poised to be the security partner of choice for enterprises
looking to adopt, scale, and secure Kubernetes across their business without impacting development
velocity.

“KSOC empowers our development teams to own the security outcomes of our applications and
infrastructure with minimal operational overhead. KSOC’s platform is a perfect fit for our existing
DevOps workflows,” Kim Green, CISO at World Market and KSOC customer.

“Kubernetes adoption is undergoing exponential growth and security is quickly becoming a primary
concern as teams look to scale. I’m excited to bring the KSOC platform to market to solve this
challenge,” said Brooke Motta, Co-founder and CEO.

“KSOC is defining a market space within Kubernetes security that is primed to explode in the coming
years,” said Greg Dracon, Partner, .406 Ventures. “We are thrilled to partner with Brooke and Jimmy
and believe KSOC will change the way enterprises secure their cloud-native infrastructure.”
Dracon will join the KSOC board of directors, bringing with him over 25 years of cybersecurity-focused

venture investing and technology operating.
“KSOC stood out for many reasons–not the least of which is because their solution exemplifies security
by design, which is one of the key tenets we believe in at Gula Tech Adventures. Fast remediation allows
developers to spot and fix misconfigurations and vulnerabilities, and is critical when working to keep
pace with the speed of innovation,” said Ron Gula, President, Gula Tech Adventures.

“In this noisy and rapidly-growing Kubernetes environment, KSOC’s cloud-native solution puts security
on auto-pilot so developers can focus on application building,” said Chase Roberts, Principal at Vertex
Ventures US. “We’re confident that KSOC, with its strong leadership and sorely-needed technology, will
produce a category-defining company that’s indispensable for security and software teams alike. We
couldn’t be more excited to join them on this journey.”
Roberts will join KSOC as a board observer and will partner closely with the team to help them realize
their mission.
“Businesses cannot move applications to Kubernetes and expect to transform into a DevOps shop,” said
Zane Lackey, Co-Founder of Signal Sciences and KSOC angel investor. “Without the proper security
controls, including least-privilege access and hardened cluster configurations, attackers can wreak havoc
in an enterprise’s cloud environment. KSOC addresses these challenges head on by allowing
development and security teams to meet at the source – the code itself.”
“We are thrilled to have KSOC join and support the CNCF and Security TAG,” said Chris Aniszcyk, CTO of
the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. “The cloud native community requires the work of dedicated
individuals and organizations to continue pushing the boundaries of scalability and security, and we are
glad to count KSOC in these ranks.”
KSOC will be hosting a webinar on March 1 at 10:00 a.m. PST to discuss the fundamentals of securing a
modern Kubernetes environment. Attendees will learn how KSOC enables security teams to discover
and remediate Kubernetes misconfigurations and vulnerabilities across any cloud. Register today.

About KSOC
KSOC (Kubernetes Security Operations Center) reduces an organization’s attack surface through
automatic remediation of Kubernetes security issues and the enforcement of identity and least privilege
access control across distributed cluster infrastructures. KSOC is the security partner of choice for
enterprises looking to adopt and scale Kubernetes across their business without impacting development
velocity. The event-driven, SaaS platform offers rapid remediation of misconfigurations and
vulnerabilities, allowing developers and security teams to secure their workloads at code-level. To learn
more: https://www.ksoc.com/.
Media Contact
Kate D. Shapiro
LaunchTech Communications
kate@golaunchtech.com
410-698-5211