Security Startup Drata Raises Additional $200M As It Eyes Future Channel Growth

‘We‘ve grown from a few hundred customers to well over 2,000 just in the last 12 months,’ CEO Adam Markowitz tells CRN.

Compliance and security automation provider Drata has raised an additional $200 million, bringing its total raised to more than $300 million since its founding just two years ago.

The San Diego-based startup, which is now valued at $2 billion after its new Series C funding round, plans to use most of the money for R&D purposes.

But Drata is also looking at potentially substantial growth in its channel sales over the next few years, up from its current 15 percent of revenues generated via the channel to an undisclosed higher level, company officials told CRN.

Adam Markowitz, co-founder and CEO of Drata (pictured), said his firm’s philosophy has been to drive sales by relentlessly improving its various compliance and security offerings, making them more attractive to customers and partners alike.

“We‘ve grown from a few hundred customers to well over 2,000 just in the last 12 months,” Markowitz told CRN. “There’s an increasing demand for what we‘re doing and the problems that we’re solving.”

He said the global governance, risk and compliance (GRC) market is projected to hit $15 billion in the next three years – and Drata intends to grow with it along with its partners.

Without releasing revenue numbers, Markowitz said Drata is now on a “hypergrowth trajectory.”

“We expect to continue at that [growth] pace - if not accelerated with this latest round of funding,” said Markowitz, noting Drata’s workforce has grown from 70 to 300 employees just in the last year.

Kevin Kriebel, vice president of business development at Drata, said the firm’s current partners team consists of about 8 employees handling about 100 partners. In an interview with CRN, he indicated those numbers may be increasing soon.

He said the key is to continually develop and enhance products that benefit both customers and partners. “This creates a whole new opportunity for [partners] to go to the market with,” he said.

Drata certainly has its share of high-profile believers among its investors

It’s latest $200 million Series C round was led by ICONIQ Growth and GGV Capital, along with other participating firms such as Salesforce Venture and S Ventures [SentinelOne].

The “strategic individuals” who also participated in the latest round include Jeff Weiner, past CEO and current executive chairman at LinkedIn; Frank Slootman, chairman and CEO at Snowflake; and Jennifer Tejada, CEO and chair at PagerDuty.

Satya Nadella, CEO and executive chair at Microsoft, was an investor in Drata‘s $100 million Series B round in 2021.

The impressive funding round comes as financing for startup companies has all but dried up given the uncertainty economy.

In a press release, Will Griffith, founding partner at ICONIQ Growth, heaped praise on Drata’s leadership and product development.

“The Drata team continues to set the bar higher with its innovative platform and customer-centric approach,” said Griffith.

“The speed with which the company operates continues to blow us away. We‘re looking forward to supporting Drata’s future growth as they cement their leadership position in the security and compliance automation industry.”