As a data security solution focused solely on SaaS ecosystems, Metomic will use the Series A funding round to expand into the U.S.

Metomic, a next generation data security solution for protecting sensitive data in the new era of collaborative SaaS, announced it has raised a $20 million Series A funding round. The round is led by Evolution Equity Partners with participation from Resonance and Connect Ventures. The investment will be used for U.S. expansion efforts and research and development initiatives. It will also allow Metomic to double down on its AI technology, furthering its mission to enable safer, more compliant data sharing across collaborative software-as-a-service (SaaS) ecosystems.

Security, privacy and compliance teams use Metomic’s no-code workflows to automate data policies across their SaaS applications. This includes the ability to deliver real-time notifications directly to employees when they have uploaded sensitive data into the wrong environment, essentially enabling a human firewall across the organization.

Metomic’s funding round comes at a critical time as the SaaS ecosystem continues to grow. Research shows that SaaS app usage was up 18% last year, with businesses using, on average, more than 130 SaaS tools across the organization. The challenge comes from the lack of visibility and control companies have over what data employees are uploading in SaaS apps, and whom they are sharing it with. The result: PII (personally identifiable information), confidential information, and security credentials are being stored and exposed unnecessarily – often by accident. This presents a real risk and pain for organizations that rely on the productivity benefits of SaaS, but need to control and protect their most sensitive data.

Metomic is giving organizations visibility and control of their data across collaborative SaaS applications, including Google Apps, Slack, Jira, and Zendesk by connecting to the data layer of these popular work tools. It allows security professionals to see what data is being stored, where it is, and who has access to it. Metomic’s automated processes are having a groundbreaking effect on how modern companies protect sensitive data at scale.

"Security, IT and compliance teams have no visibility into the data employees are storing and sharing across third-party SaaS applications. They are suffering from alert fatigue and are overwhelmed with the amount of notifications they have to address,” said Rich Vibert, CEO and Co-Founder, Metomic. “By triaging critical risks and putting remediation in the hands of employees, we give security teams the most effective, scalable, and modern way to protect their most vulnerable data, without getting in the way of high-value work.”

In the last 18 months, Metomic’s automated platform has prevented more than two million data leak threats lurking in SaaS ecosystems. Even more astonishing, it has detected hundreds of millions of sensitive data points within SaaS apps and found that 99% of the sensitive data does not need to be there or is accessible to people who shouldn’t have access.

"Businesses adopt SaaS applications at a rapid pace. While SaaS tools increase employees’ productivity and enable collaboration among colleagues and partners, IT security teams have limited visibility and control over sensitive data stored within these apps,” said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, Partner, Evolution Equity Partners. “Metomic gets it. We believe their approach to SaaS data security can fill the gap by helping security teams control sensitive data and remain in compliance with regulations."

"Evolution Equity are great partners for Metomic," added Vibert. "As cybersecurity investors, they not only knew the space, but immediately understood the business value of our technology. We connected on the need to protect information at the data level inside SaaS, one of the fastest growing niches in cybersecurity today."

Currently, Metomic has customers across Europe and North America, with 50% of its customers based in the U.S. It plans to quadruple employee headcount by the end of the year, with its sales and marketing functions headquartered in the U.S.