ZEST Security Exits Stealth to Resolve, not Just Flag, Enterprise Cloud Risks Using GenAI

• Raises $5M from Hanaco and Silvertech Ventures to tackle the massive and growing attack surface of cloud vulnerabilities and misconfigurations
• Cloud risk resolution platform dramatically reduces time from discovery to remediation for DevOps and Security teams 

ZEST Security exited stealth today with its AI-powered cloud risk resolution platform to eliminate enterprise cloud security risks at scale. The platform correlates and pinpoints the root cause of cloud risks to craft resolution paths that eliminate cloud vulnerabilities and misconfigurations that attackers can exploit. The breakthrough technology–a game changer for cloud security efforts–attracted a seed round investment of $5 million from Hanaco Ventures, Silvertech Ventures and angel investors.

Today’s security stack is very rich in identifying cloud risks, vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, but when it comes to remediating these risks, it’s extremely manual, time consuming and in some cases, impossible. Once a potential risk is identified, significant back-and-forth between teams is required to validate the risk, understand the root cause and determine the best resolution. On average, it takes 30-60 days to remediate a single cloud security risk and 80% of resolved risks only resurface shortly after remediation. Lack of efficient and effective remediation is not only costing organizations millions of dollars per year in operational spending, it has also directly contributed to a drastic increase in successful exploitation of known cloud risks.

According to Mandiant’s most recent M-Trends report:

• Vulnerability exploitation is the top initial access vector,
• And cloud-native misconfigurations are the main enabler for adversaries to maintain access, move laterally and accomplish mission objectives.

ZEST’s AI-powered risk resolution platform is redefining cloud risk remediation for security and DevOps teams. “Combining the power of Generative AI with the cost savings and selection of open-source innovations, ZEST seized a unique opportunity to revolutionize how organizations approach security and risk,” said Charlie Federman, Partner at Silvertech Ventures. “Snir and Uri’s deep experience in cloud, product and application security uniquely positions them to help the security industry move beyond visibility to effectively resolving cloud risks.”

Under the leadership of co-founders Snir Ben Shimol, CEO and Uri Aronovici, CTO, both ex-Israeli Intelligence officers, ZEST was founded to bridge the gap between identifying security risks and efficiently remediating them. There is a pressing need for technology that shifts the industry’s focus. It’s not about opening tickets; it’s about closing them.

“In recent years, the focus has been on cloud risk identification, but what we now have is a ‘failure to remediate’ problem,” said Shimol. “We founded ZEST to solve a big challenge within a new market. By providing security teams with resolution paths –whether that’s mitigation using existing tools, or preventative remediation using Infrastructure as Code (IaC)–organizations can finally level the playing field with threat actors. Just three years ago, building a product like this wouldn’t have been possible. We have a unique opportunity to tackle this now by taking advantage of developments in GenAI and the rapid adoption of DevOps systems.”

Before founding ZEST, Snir built the global cyber security platform and services organization at Varonis. Shimol then held the role of CSO at Cider Security to build the first AppSec OS. Snir and the co-founders took Cider from $0 ARR to an impressive exit to Palo Alto Networks in just two years.

Uri Aronovici has 10+ years of hands-on and leadership experience in cloud and product security working at large organizations including Akamai Technologies and Check Point Software. As the security architect lead, Uri faced the challenges associated with remediating cloud security risks daily. Bombarded with alerts from his cloud security stack, he spent years going back and forth with DevOps to find solutions. Despite his efforts, there was little to show for it in terms of actually reducing the risk to the business. These frustrations led him to develop a technical solution, which eventually became the vision for ZEST.

Credit:ZEST