Okta buys AI security startup Permiso for about 200 million dollars

Okta has agreed to buy Permiso Security, a startup specializing in identity security for cloud infrastructure and, more recently, for AI agents. According to what TechCrunch has learned from a source with knowledge of the deal, the agreement is valued at just under $200 million and is structured as an almost entirely cash transaction. Okta has not officially disclosed the financial terms, although a company spokesperson did not deny the $200 million figure when TechCrunch put the question to chief executive Todd McKinnon. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of Okta's fiscal year 2027, subject to customary closing conditions.

The acquisition fits a broader trend among identity management companies: moving from verifying users only at the moment of login to continuously monitoring what users, applications and, increasingly, AI agents do once they have already obtained authorized access to a network environment. That shift has intensified the competition to secure so-called "machine identities" as companies embed AI more deeply into their day-to-day operations.

Permiso came out of stealth in 2022 and develops software that helps security teams detect suspicious activity in cloud environments after users or applications have been granted access. More recently, the company extended its platform to monitor AI agents and other non-human identities as well. It was co-founded by Paul Nguyen and Jason Martin, both former FireEye executives, and specializes in detecting attacks that use stolen or compromised identities to move through cloud infrastructure. In April, the startup unveiled SandyClaw, a platform designed to analyze AI agents' "skills" in an isolated environment (sandbox) in order to identify malicious behavior before they are deployed.

With this purchase, Okta strengthens its push into securing AI agents and other non-human identities, adding it to its core identity management business. Okta's chief product officer, Ely Kahn, said in a statement that "Permiso will extend Okta's identity security fabric with proven identity threat detection and response capabilities, and an extraordinary threat research and security team that will advance Okta's threat detection and prevention capabilities".

As for its financial track record, Permiso has raised around $29 million to date, including an $18.5 million Series A closed in April 2024 and led by Altimeter Capital. Sources close to that round put the valuation of the Palo Alto-based startup at around $80 million post-money at the time. A sale to Okta for close to $200 million would therefore imply a notable multiple on that valuation of little more than two years earlier.

The move comes at a time when AI agent security is emerging as a growing front for investment and consolidation in the sector: as companies deploy autonomous software across their operations, the need to treat those agents as identities that must be authenticated, authorized and monitored — just like employees or applications — is shaping up as one of the next battlegrounds in corporate cybersecurity.