Most companies still cannot say who, or what, has access to their systems at any given moment. Oak, an Israeli startup, has raised $60M to fix that, and it is betting AI agents make the problem urgent.
The company came out of stealth with the seed round, it said. Its aim is an “identity operating system”: a single control plane that governs every identity in a firm, whether a human, a machine, or an AI agent.
Why identity is the target #
Identity is the front door to any company, which makes it the top target for attackers. Yet most firms run a patchwork of old tools built for human staff and slow-moving systems. The rush of machine and agent accounts has left them behind.
Oak wants to replace that patchwork. Its software connects to any system, builds a live map of every identity from how it actually behaves, and strips out access that is no longer used. It does this in real time, not in a once-a-year review.
A serial founder’s next act #
The bet is really a bet on the team. Chief executive Shai Morag has built and sold three security companies, including Ermetic, bought by Tenable for $265m in 2023, TechCrunch reported. His exits total around $500m.
“Our vision is to be born as a giant,” Morag said. He told his wife Oak would be his last company. “I will go big or go home.”
The round was co-led by Accel, Greylock, and CRV, and first revealed by Calcalist. It is one of the largest seed rounds ever for an Israeli cyber firm. Oak already has about 50 staff and paying enterprise customers.
An identity land grab #
Oak is not alone. Identity has become one of the hottest corners of security, and the giants are circling. Palo Alto Networks recently agreed to buy CyberArk, a sign of how much the category is worth.
The trigger is AI. As agents start acting on their own, the web is scrambling to work out how to give them an identity. Researchers have already tricked agents into leaking private code and even running a ransomware attack. Firms are racing to control the bots before that spreads.
Oak’s wager is that all of it, from staff logins to Alexa-style assistants, will finally sit under one roof. Morag thinks the winners here will be worth “tens and even hundreds of billions.”
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