Sentra raises $30M to streamline data securely across the public cloud

Protecting data in the cloud is the core challenge of modern enterprise security. After all, organizations need to have the ability to prevent unauthorized users from accessing data as it moves across on-premises, cloud, hybrid and multicloud environments. This can be challenging in the public cloud in particular, where there’s lack of visibility over what data is in use, where.

This is a challenge that cloud data security vendor Sentra aims to solve. The company today announced it has raised $30 million as part of a series A funding round led by Standard Investments. It provides organizations with a solution to discover and scan cloud data stores across the public cloud, generating alerts if PII is exposed.

It’s an approach that offers organizations a way to enhance their data security posture across the cloud by reducing the data attack surface and lowering the risk of data theft or exfiltration. 

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Data security as a usability essential 

Maintaining data protection across the cloud has become a persistent struggle for organizations, with research showing that 53% of IT professionals say compliance in the cloud has become too difficult. 

These compliance challenges not only increase risks for organizations, they also discourage decision-makers from gathering insights from their data, lest they open the door to legal and financial liabilities. As a result, implementing cloud-friendly data-protection controls is critical for ensuring data usability. 

“Today, most organizations view security as a blocker to business success, not an enabler. Sentra was founded because we believe this thinking to be flawed as data security should be a business’ most important enabler,” said Yoav Regev, CEO and cofounder of Sentra. “When data is used efficiently and protected appropriately, organizations can move faster in this digital age and ensure business continuity.”  

“The promises of flexibility make the cloud one of the most amazing technological advancements in recent memory. However this flexibility means that organizations can easily lose control and visibility of their most sensitive information. Our solution solves this problem by ensuring that organizations prioritize the protection of this sensitive information while keeping up with business demand and the speed of data in the cloud,” Regev said. 

A look at the DSPM market 

Sentra falls under the category of the data security posture management (DSPM) market, as outlined by Gartner in the Hype Cycle for Data Security 2022. From Gartner’s perspective, DSPM solutions provide visibility on where sensitive data is located, who has access to it and what the security posture of the data store or application is. 

One of Sentra’s competitors is Baffle, which offers a cloud data protection platform (CDPP) designed to simplify tokenization and data encryption to help organizations maintain data privacy with the support of access monitoring and field-level encryption to protect data end-to-end. 

Baffle most recently announced raising $20 million in series B funding in August 2021. 

Another competitor is Dig Security, offering security teams a platform that can discover and classify cloud data assets across multiple clouds, while providing real-time data detection and response to generated alerts and automated responses to threats. 

Dig Security most recently raised $34 million as part of a series A funding round in September 2022. 

“Many players in the DSPM space are startups that have only been around for one to two years. That said, the main differentiator separating us from the companies is our focused data-centric approach. Our vision is to secure the data life cycle and integrate within a customer’s environment, bringing them a holistic view instead of a siloed one,” Regev said.