Cybersecurity startup Native, led by AWS vets with roots in Seattle, exits startup with $42M
A new cloud security startup called Native came out of stealth mode on Tuesday, announcing a $42 million funding round to build what it describes as a “control plane” for cloud security.
The funding includes a $31 million Series A round led by Ballistic Ventures, with participation from General Catalyst, YL Ventures, and Merlin Ventures. Phil Venables, former chief security officer at Google Cloud and business partner with Ballistic, has joined the company’s board.
Native aims to help companies better secure complex, multi-cloud environments as cyber threats accelerate in the age of AI.
The company, which has Fortune 100 businesses as customers, allows teams to define security policies and automate them across platforms such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
Instead of relying on tools that detect vulnerabilities after the fact, startups focus on preventing problems early by embedding security policies directly into the cloud infrastructure.
A native platform uses built-in security features from each cloud provider and translates the high-level policy into the specific configuration needed to enforce it across environments. The software also includes tools to simulate changes and roll them out gradually, which helps reduce the risk of disrupting production plans.
Mdabu CEO Amit Megido said that although cloud providers provide security tools, many companies struggle to use them effectively.
“We built Mdabu so that the security groups can define the purpose of the security policy and make it work everywhere, it stays relevant as the situation changes,” said Megido in a press release. “When security comes from the infrastructure, it makes the business move faster within a secure framework.”
The company’s customers include “one of the world’s largest streaming services” and “one of the world’s leading chip manufacturers,” according to a blog post from Ballistic.
Native was founded in 2024 by three long-time software engineers:
- Megido, based in Seattle, led Amazon GuardDuty within AWS
- CTO Eyal Faingold, based in Tel Aviv, led cloud security at Check Point Software Technologies.
- CPO Gal Ordo, based in Tel Aviv, worked at the AWS Security Hub during downtime in Seattle.
Native has 41 employees in the US and Israel, most of whom are based in the Tel Aviv area, according to LinkedIn. It plans to more than double the number by the end of the year.
“Cloud security is entering a new era where the unit of work doesn’t ‘find’ problems, safely enforcing the right build at speed,” Venables said in a statement. “What will be critical is whether the platform can translate the intent into true, provider-native enforcement across all clouds and keep that enforcement relevant as environments evolve.”
