Prominent tech executives back $36M round for cybersecurity startup Clover Security – News

Clover Security Ltd., a new startup that provides cybersecurity software for developers, launched today with $36 million in funding.

Notable Capital and Team8 led the round. They were joined by more than a half-dozen other investors including Wiz Inc. co-founders Assaf Rappaport and Yinon Costica, cybersecurity entrepreneur Shlomo Kramer and executives from several publicly traded tech firms.

The coding stage of software projects is usually preceded by a design phase. Developers draft a so-called product requirements document, or PRD, that outlines what features a new application should include. They also create other design guidelines, such as diagrams that describe how the application’s components will interact with one another.

Tel Aviv-based Clover offers a cybersecurity platform optimized to process application design documents. According to the company, its platform analyzes those documents to determine if a design contains vulnerabilities. Clover can, for example, identify if one of the proposed features in a PRD doesn’t adhere to the OWASP ASVS application security framework.

After the platform maps out the security issues in a project, it ranks them based  on the risk they could pose. Clover calculates that risk based on the severity of a flaw and the likelihood it will be exploited by hackers. Prioritizing security weak points enables engineers to fix the most urgent issues first.

According to Clover, its platform can not only identify flaws in an existing application design but also help developers draft new design documents. The software uses artificial intelligence to suggest cybersecurity guardrails that a software team should implement. Companies can optionally customize those AI suggestions to align them with their internal policies.

After developers turn an application design into code, Clover scans that code to check if it adheres to the cybersecurity guidelines outlined in the design. When an issue is found, the platform alerts the relevant engineer and generates remediation suggestions.

“Teams are moving faster and building more than ever,” said Clover co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Alon Kollmann (pictured, right, with co-founder Or Chen). “Security teams are left alone to manage unprecedented complexity. Clover changes that by helping product security teams scale by working where products start, in design.”

Clover says its customer base includes multiple Fortune 500 companies. Its platform has also been adopted by Neo4j Inc., Notion Labs Inc. and other heavily-funded enterprise software startups. Kollmann told Axios that Clover will use its funding to double its 40-strong workforce over the next year. 

Photo: Clover