Cyber startup Descope, led by 8 founders who sold their last startup to Palo Alto Networks, have raised $35 million more to take on Okta in securing a Wild West of AI agents gone rogue.
The timing on this funding round is fasinating because Okta's actually in a weaker position than you might expect for an incumbent. Yeah they announced agent security features last week but if you dig into what they shipped it's mostly extensions of their existing access managment platform rather than purpose-built for agentic workflows. The point about agents needing granular permissions that differ from their human counterparts is absolutely critical and I don't think Okta's architecture was designed with that level of nuance in mind. What gives Descope and other challengers an opening here is that agent security isn't just identity authentication, it's about managing complex policy decisions in realtime across multiple systems. The big question is whether enterprises will trust a newer player for something this critikal or if they'll default to Okta because it's the safe choice even if the product isn't quite there yet.
I might be wrong but I feel like the trend these days is to favor small nimble companies that can build a product around your needs.
Not that this is smth new, but in the past, many companies would shy away from this kind of partnership because you never know how long the company will be around to support you with that custom solution.
I wonder if funding rounds in tens of millions gives customers more confidence. Or maybe the cost of switching between SaaS platforms is not as high as it used to be.
The timing on this funding round is fasinating because Okta's actually in a weaker position than you might expect for an incumbent. Yeah they announced agent security features last week but if you dig into what they shipped it's mostly extensions of their existing access managment platform rather than purpose-built for agentic workflows. The point about agents needing granular permissions that differ from their human counterparts is absolutely critical and I don't think Okta's architecture was designed with that level of nuance in mind. What gives Descope and other challengers an opening here is that agent security isn't just identity authentication, it's about managing complex policy decisions in realtime across multiple systems. The big question is whether enterprises will trust a newer player for something this critikal or if they'll default to Okta because it's the safe choice even if the product isn't quite there yet.
That's really helpful perspective, thank you for sharing!
I might be wrong but I feel like the trend these days is to favor small nimble companies that can build a product around your needs.
Not that this is smth new, but in the past, many companies would shy away from this kind of partnership because you never know how long the company will be around to support you with that custom solution.
I wonder if funding rounds in tens of millions gives customers more confidence. Or maybe the cost of switching between SaaS platforms is not as high as it used to be.