Entrepreneurs Al Yang and Adar Arnon met at Harvard Business School and quickly realized they had a common interest: cybersecurity.
“We have experienced a changing business climate that has brought with it an unprecedented need for improved security processes,” Arnon told TechCrunch. “The importance of security has increased exponentially… [it’s] non-negotiable for technology buyers.”
Yang and Arnon decided to expand on this interest and founded SafeBase, which was accepted into Y Combinator’s accelerator program during the pandemic.
SafeBase announced Tuesday that it has raised $33 million in a Series B round led by Touring Capital. The company helps customers fill out security questionnaires. These are checks that companies typically carry out before purchasing new software. It’s a governance and compliance thing.
Security questionnaires can be tedious and take teams weeks to months to complete for more complex pieces of software. But Arnon argues that SafeBase can save time through automation – and AI.
SafeBase employs AI models that are “specifically trained in safety documentation use cases” to read, interpret, and then automatically answer safety information and questions to safety questionnaires. “[Our platform] “eases the cumbersome security review process by strengthening security, governance, risk, compliance and revenue teams,” he said.
Photo credit: SafeBase
Being the cynic I am when it comes to AI, I asked Arnon about the accuracy of these models. After all, AI is a notorious liar. He claimed that it was superior thanks to a “mixture of large and small language models” that provide “greater response coverage.” [and].” Take that as you will.
Beyond custom models, SafeBase offers an engine that allows an organization to assign “rule-based behavior” for customer access, as well as dashboards that provide insight and analysis into the organization’s security posture.
SafeBase isn’t the only provider offering tools to automate security questionnaires and reviews. Competitors include Conveyor, which recently raised $12.5 million; Kintent; and Quilt, which claims it can automate due diligence reviews in addition to security checks.
Arnon didn’t seem too worried. Perhaps that’s because of SafeBase’s customer list of 700 companies, which includes Palantir, LinkedIn, Asana, and Instacart.
“SafeBase has experienced tremendous growth in recent years,” said Arnon. “Customers love the product and acceptance continues to increase. The company will benefit from increased visibility across its supplier network as more major customers adopt trust centers that eliminate tens of thousands of manual security checks.”
SafeBase, based in San Francisco, employs 55 people.
The company’s Series B included participation from strategic investor Zoom Ventures (Zoom’s corporate venture arm), NEA, Y Combinator, Comcast Ventures and Cerca Partners, as well as angels including former Salesforce Chief Trust Officer Jim Alkove. This brings SafeBase’s total revenue to over $50 million; Arnon says a significant portion will go toward expanding the team.