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“Work from anywhere” was a growing trend well before COVID, though only a few months ago, maybe 10-15% of a company’s employees worked remotely on any given day. The pandemic has of course accelerated that shift, with some businesses, many of them in tech, without plans to ever return to a traditional office setting.
As the world returns to a new normal, our belief is that “work from anywhere” will continue to be a popular option for enterprises and one encouraged by management and employees alike. It’s still early days, but we’ve already seen companies like Slack, Square and Zillow announce permanent policies and employees at those companies (and others) move outside of crowded, expensive metro areas to more affordable regions where they can live near family, buy a home or explore other pursuits. While it’s probable most businesses will adopt more of a hybrid approach, it’s no doubt that a sizable percentage of all employees will work somewhere other than a cubicle or more traditional office space.
This shift has big implications on the infrastructure required to support those individuals and to run those companies. Many are already in the thick of vetting new platforms and new tools required to support remote workforces, arguably none more important than the security technologies that protect company data and applications from getting into the wrong hands. That’s because, in a few words, securing remote workers, even at small scale, has always been tough.
While it seems like a problem that should have already been solved, it’s not. Tools like virtual private networks (VPNs) have worked well enough for edge cases and when remote employees need to connect to company data or apps once in a while, but not with widespread, everyday use that “work from anywhere” policies now require. They're too clunky, expensive and most importantly, were actually never designed to secure individual apps or data, but to provide generic access – meaning a single VPN breach could bring an entire enterprise to its knees.
Our Series B investment in Axis Security is a confluence of two thesis areas (1) that companies will continue to adopt “work from anywhere” policies and (2) that security solutions must verify everyone and everything before granting access – a “Zero Trust” approach as it’s become known. The company also happens to be backed by an exceptionally accomplished founding team in Dor and Gil who have assembled an influential group of CISOs and Fortune 500 customers across hospitality, tech and pharmaceuticals, among other verticals.
Axis brings a new, already proven approach to a decades-old problem that makes secure access amazingly simple for employees (no matter where they are), as well as partners, vendors and contractors. The implementation is almost instant and cost-effective, with Axis’ agentless solution requiring very light to non-existent management overhead. The Zero Trust approach provides enterprises an easy way to manage access to apps at a granular level with least possible privilege.
Dor and Gil are an exceptionally talented founding team and have recruited a great set of people to help them build this business. The company is rising at the right place at the right moment and we are humbled and fortunate to become their partner at such a pivotal time.