LACEWORK

Sanjay Kalra and Vikram Kapoor founded Lacework in 2015 to solve a growing problem: as companies moved to the cloud (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), traditional security tools couldn't keep up. Cloud environments are dynamic — servers spin up and down, containers last seconds, and the attack surface changes constantly.

Lacework built a platform that uses behavioral analytics and machine learning to establish a baseline of normal cloud activity and then detect anomalies. Instead of writing rules for every possible threat, the system learns what's normal and flags what isn't.

Lacework sells cloud security software to enterprises on a subscription basis. The platform monitors cloud infrastructure, containers, Kubernetes, and workloads for security threats.

Customers pay based on the volume of cloud resources being monitored. The value proposition: replace multiple point security tools with one platform that uses ML to detect threats across your entire cloud environment.

Lacework Platform — unified cloud security across AWS, Azure, and GCP. Cloud Workload Protection — runtime threat detection for servers and containers.

Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management — identity and access security. Compliance Monitoring — automated compliance checks across cloud environments.

Massive fundraising during the cloud security boom. Lacework raised $1.8 billion — more than almost any other cloud security company — which funded aggressive sales hiring and product development.

They also benefited from the broader shift to cloud computing, which made cloud security a necessity for every enterprise.

Overvaluation hangover. Lacework was valued at $8.3 billion in late 2021.

When the market corrected in 2022, the company laid off 20% of staff and the valuation came under severe pressure. Competition from CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, and Wiz (which raised even more) is intense.

The cloud security market is crowded despite being large.

Sutter Hill Ventures, Altimeter Capital, D1 Capital, Tiger Global, GV (Google Ventures), and Coatue participated in various rounds. The $1.3 billion Series D in November 2021 at an $8.3 billion valuation was one of the largest ever for a cybersecurity company.