Backed by $60M in funding, Oak steps out of stealth to fix the identity mess that AI agents are making worse
Israeli startup Oak is stepping out of stealth to fill the gap in identity management for humans and AI agents in digital environments. The company has raised $60 million in seed funding and is now emerging publicly with its product generally available and already deploye…
Intelligence analysis by Llama
Oak is an Israeli startup that has been quietly building a unified control plane for identity management across an organization. It has raised $60 million in seed funding and is now emerging publicly with its product generally available and already deployed by enterprise clients.
Imagine you're at a big company with lots of employees and computers. Each employee needs to be able to access certain things, but not everything. Oak is a company that helps make sure the right people have the right access to the right things. They're using special computers to help make this process easier and safer.
Analysis
A $60B Vote of Confidence
Oak's $60 million round was co-led by Accel, CRV, and Greylock Partners, with participation from AlphaDrive Ventures, Hetz Ventures, and angel investors. Morag told TechCrunch that VC interest was strong from the outset. Accel partner Andrei Brasoveanu said Morag's track record alone was a strong argument. Accel had led Ermetic's Series A when it was pre-revenue; when Tenable acquired it, Accel gave Morag an informal standing offer to back whatever he built next, Brasoveanu said.
"I knew he had it in him to build another company, but this time even bigger and even better," Brasoveanu said. With AI as "a democratizing force," Accel has been backing founders right out of high school, Brasoveanu said. But when it comes to identity management, experience still counts.
"There's complexity in the product, and there's also complexity in the organizations you have to navigate to figure out how to sell something like this," he said. Both Brasoveanu and Morag expect Oak will face plenty of competitors trying to use AI as a catalyst for change in a space where vendor lock-in runs deep. That makes it critical for Oak to scale fast.
Morag, who told his wife this will be his last company, says he won't retire until he's given it everything he's got: "I will go big or go home." Pictured above, from right to left: Shai Morag and Tal Marom.
Why Cursor?
Oak's solution is an AI connector framework that maps access to actual app usage and removes permissions that are no longer needed in real time, rather than only during periodic reviews. "Right now, the whole process is too manual, and it's operations-based, not risk-based — for instance, there's no trigger when an employee logs in from an unusual location," said Morag, a former army major who spent more than two decades in cybersecurity.
During that time, he had three exits, including selling cyber startup Secdo to Palo Alto Networks in 2018. This track record helped Oak raise what is a very big round by local standards, one that matches its plans to invest heavily in R&D and growth, Morag said.
"Our vision is to be born as a giant," he told TechCrunch.
The Road Ahead
While in stealth, the two also built a team of 50 people and are actively hiring, particularly in the U.S., where a majority of Oak's staff will soon be based, Morag said. Oak's $60 million round was co-led by Accel, CRV, and Greylock Partners, with participation from AlphaDrive Ventures, Hetz Ventures, and angel investors.
Key points
- Oak is an Israeli startup that has been quietly building a unified control plane for identity management across an organization.
- The company has raised $60 million in seed funding and is now emerging publicly with its product generally available and already deployed by enterprise clients.
- Oak's solution is an AI connector framework that maps access to actual app usage and removes permissions that are no longer needed in real time.
- The company is actively hiring, particularly in the U.S., where a majority of Oak's staff will soon be based.
If Oak's solution is successful, it could help make identity management easier and safer for companies. This could lead to more efficient and secure use of technology, and potentially even new business opportunities.
However, Oak will face competition from other companies trying to solve the same problem. If they can't scale quickly and effectively, they may struggle to gain traction in the market.
