Identity giant Okta has agreed to acquire Permiso Security, a startup focused on AI identity security, at a price a source put at just under $200M, mostly cash.
The identity management giant declined to confirm the price but did not dispute it. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of its fiscal 2027.
Two former FireEye executives, Paul Nguyen and Jason Martin, founded Permiso, which came out of stealth in 2022. Its tools watch for suspicious behavior in cloud environments after a user or application has already been granted access, particularly attacks built on stolen or compromised identities.
More recently, the startup expanded into securing AI agents and other machine identities. In April it launched SandyClaw, a platform that analyzes AI agent skills in a sandboxed environment to flag malicious behavior before deployment.
Ely Kahn, Okta’s chief product officer, said the deal brings in threat detection know-how and a research team that will sharpen the company’s own defenses.
The deal comes as identity companies race beyond verifying users at login, toward continuously monitoring what users, apps and AI agents do once inside a network. Enterprises deploying autonomous software have made machine identities a top concern.
The startup’s venture history is modest: about $29M raised in total, capped by an $18.5M Series A in April 2024, led by Altimeter Capital, that put its post-money value near $80M.
