Symmetry Systems Ramps Up Hybrid-Cloud Data Security with $15 Million Series A Funding

SAN FRANCISCO, June 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Symmetry Systems, provider of cutting-edge Data Store and Object Security (DSOS), today announced a $15 million Series A funding round led by Prefix Capital and ForgePoint Capital, two premier venture funds investing in foundational and transformative technologies. The investment will support the company's rapid growth in revenue, customers, and employees. 

This latest funding round also featured participation from Accenture Ventures, and Symmetry Systems is now part of their Project Spotlight, its engagement and investment program that connects emerging technology software startups with the Global 2000 to fill strategic innovation gaps. In addition, this round includes leading practitioners, such as Tom Gonser, Founder of DocuSign; Omkhar Arasarathnam, Engineering Director at Google Cloud; Bob Gleichauf, EVP at InQTel and ex-CTO at Cisco; David Tsao, VP of Security Engineering at Marqeta; and Sameer Sait, Chief Information Security Officer at Amazon Whole Foods. 

"At Symmetry, we believe that privacy enables individuals to have agency over their future, and that privacy and data security has to be built into infrastructure -- cloud today and the edge tomorrow," said Mohit Tiwari, CEO and co-founder of Symmetry Systems. "Our work guards what matters most -- data -- and enables security teams to see through complex cloud permissions, accesses, and data types over billions of data objects."

In today's hybrid cloud environment, data spans across databases, object stores, and data lakes. Users, developers, supply-chain vendors, contractors all get to data via a web of roles and applications. Symmetry Systems' flagship solution, DataGuard, provides unified visibility into data objects across all data stores, answering data security and compliance questions that traditional cloud security tools cannot. For example, what data is affected by a compromised credential, or an exploited web-service, or an off-boarded analyst? DataGuard enables cloud- and security-operations to understand and systematically control data risks -- defining the path to zero trust for data -- while baking in compliance and incident response into infrastructure-as-code.

"We're proud to be a founding investor with Mohit Tiwari and Casen Hunger. The experience of helping to build the team and product at Symmetry has been a joy and we're excited to double-down," said Will Lin, Managing Director & co-founder at ForgePoint Capital, "There is a white space in data security for the modern hybrid cloud world and Symmetry is well-poised to help customers gain visibility and manage the modern risks to data."

"At Prefix, we seek rare companies that can define new market spaces with transformational technology, vision, and execution," said Byron Alsberg, co-founder and Managing Partner at Prefix Capital. "Mohit, Casen, and the Symmetry team are defining a critical area of cybersecurity that most enterprises barely understood only a few years ago."

"We believe Symmetry Systems has an innovative, modern approach to data security that our clients will benefit from," said Rex Thexton, who leads Accenture Security's applied cybersecurity services globally. "Data is the backbone of any organization, and it is more important than ever as businesses continue to move workloads to the cloud that they have data stored securely with visibility into where it is stored. Offering unified visibility across hybrid cloud environments is a top priority for Accenture in helping our clients minimize risk with a solution that has security built in from the start."

For more information about Symmetry Systems, or the DataGuard solution, please visit https://www.symmetry-systems.com/.

Supporting Customer Quotes

"At Seven Bridges we use DataGuard to secure genomic and clinical data in the cloud," said Brian Castagna, CISO at Seven Bridges, a leading biomedical data analytics company, focused on genomic precision medicine. "Symmetry's key innovation is to map out data risk from dormant data and IAM permissions, as well as analyze data flows across our dynamic AWS environment. We found DataGuard to be a highly effective tool to collaborate with our devOps team and are placing data firewall policies into code that enable stronger data security and help with achievement of our compliance audits."

"When building a cybersecurity program, I start with the methodology I have developed in my twenty plus years in the industry: Focus first on the data, then the systems that data lives on, and then the identities that have access to the data and those systems," said Chris Castaldo, CISO at Crossbeam, the world's largest partner ecosystem platform that helps companies build more valuable partnerships and drive revenue. "One of our values is "Trust is our business." To build that trust, we must build a secure platform for our customers. After evaluating several vendors, Crossbeam selected Symmetry Systems' platform DataGuard to protect and safeguard our customers' data in a system that I describe as "Data Store Detection and Response." DSDR is like Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) for our data. Symmetry DataGuard ensures security for data flows among our AWS accounts, SREs, contractors, supply-chain services, and internet-accessible services. Additionally, Symmetry automates complex parts of compliance reporting related to cloud permissions and access to protected data. With their managed offering, we have developed a close working relationship with the Symmetry team that operates as an extension of our own Cybersecurity & Trust team."

"Bluescape has chosen Symmetry DataGuard as a key security control to gain visibility and actionable intelligence on our customer database activities," said Mark Willis, CISO, at Bluescape, the leading visual platform for high-value collaboration. "DataGuard installs quickly, runs in the cloud, and provides Bluescape deep visibility into data related risks such as exploited web services and insider threats. Moving forward, Bluescape is very excited about DataGuard being a key vendor as they support and further enhance our risk based and compliance programs."

About Symmetry Systems
Symmetry Systems delivers purpose-built Data Store and Object Security (DSOS) to provide full visibility and unified access control over your most valuable data assets, no matter where or how they are stored. Born from the award-winning Spark Lab at UT Austin, Symmetry Systems DataGuard maintains authority over data when all else fails, be it exploited insider credentials, malicious applications, or false positives in security operations tools. Backed by leading security investors ForgePoint Capital and Prefix Capital, DataGuard was built with and for the most demanding security teams in finance, healthcare, and the US government. For more information about Symmetry Systems, please visit: https://www.symmetry-systems.com/.

Media Contact:
John Kreuzer
Lumina Communications for Symmetry Systems
[email protected] 

SOURCE Symmetry Systems