Drata Raises $3.2 Million and Launches Platform to Automate SoC 2 Compliance

The Company Comes Out of Stealth With Notable Customers and Announces Funding From Cowboy Ventures, Leaders Fund, and SV Angel

Drata, a next-gen compliance and security automation company, came out of stealth and announced $3.2M in seed funding led by Cowboy Ventures and participation from Leaders Fund, and SV Angel. The round also includes several strategic angel investors. Drata helps companies streamline their SOC 2 compliance through continuous, automated control monitoring and evidence collection, resulting in lower costs and time spent preparing for annual audits.

Drata announces $3.2M in seed funding led by Cowboy Ventures to help companies automate security and SOC 2 compliance

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“Drata is a team of seasoned entrepreneurs and engineers who have a successful track record and have worked together for more than 10 years. The platform they developed truly delivers on the promise of automation to reduce the burden of SOC 2 compliance and sets companies up for continuous monitoring which is coming in the future,” said Ted Wang, Partner at Cowboy Ventures. “We are excited to be working with this team.”

Traditional methods of standing up a security program and preparing for a compliance audit are manual, time-consuming, and error-prone. Most companies today are in need of a compliance automation platform that can get them audit-ready quickly and continuously prove to their customers and vendors that they handle data with the utmost care. Early customers, such as Spot by NetApp, Accel Robotics, Abnormal Security, and Chameleon have entrusted Drata to do just that, while dramatically reducing the time and costs required to obtain and maintain SOC2 compliance.

“Other solutions handled only small pieces of SOC 2, leaving us to spend hundreds of hours a year manually maintaining our compliance posture,” said Amiram Shachar, VP & GM, Spot by NetApp. “Drata’s solution automates so much of the process, from continuous control monitoring and evidence collection, to personnel onboarding and asset tracking. This has freed up our operations and engineering time to focus on product development and other priorities that affect our bottom line.”

The recent rise of data breaches and data privacy concerns have put a magnifying glass over how companies handle their customers’ data, specifically driving the need for SOC 2 attestation reports to be provided as a prerequisite for doing business with established enterprises.

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Founders, Adam Markowitz, Daniel Marashlian, and Troy Markowitz experienced the pain of manually maintaining a robust security and compliance posture while rapidly scaling their last company, Portfolium (acquired by Instructure in 2019). While selling to large enterprises and universities, the founders had to navigate multiple rounds of stringent security questionnaires and extended tech interviews to earn the trust of customers and prospects. During this time, they realized how underserved this market was and how many other companies felt the same pain.

“Drata’s mission is to help companies earn and keep the trust of their users, customers, partners, and prospects. A clean SOC 2 report is independent proof that a company prioritizes the security of its customers’ data,” said Adam Markowitz, CEO and co-founder, Drata. “SOC 2 is a colossal undertaking, and we’re proud to be delivering the solution to automate and continuously streamline the process for today’s fastest-growing SaaS companies.”

Through Drata’s continuous automated control monitoring and evidence collection, customers save hundreds of hours per year getting and staying compliant, resulting in lower costs, more R&D output, and more revenue. Drata’s ever-growing, proprietary integration engine allows businesses to connect their cloud infrastructure, identity provider, ticketing system, version control system, developer tools, and HRIS to monitor and collect evidence of SOC 2 adherence continuously.

Auditors work alongside Drata and can perform their audits in the platform, growing their client base, reducing audit time while maintaining the utmost integrity and value.

“Drata invited us to provide early feedback on the product, as it was clear they focused on bringing a robust solution to market that solved a pain for our clients,” said Troy Fine, Senior Manager, Schneider Downs. “Our clients ask for our guidance on how they can save time and stay audit-ready, and we can now confidently point them to a trusted partner in Drata.”

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