Oak Launches AI-Native Identity Platform With $60 Million Seed Funding

Israeli cybersecurity startup Oak has emerged from stealth with an artificial intelligence-driven identity management platform and $60 million in seed funding, positioning itself to address growing security challenges as AI agents become more common in enterprise environments. The company said its platform is generally available and already deployed by enterprise customers, although it did not disclose the names of those organisations.

Oak was co-founded by cybersecurity entrepreneur Shai Morag and chief product officer Tal Marom, who said existing identity and access management systems were not designed for a workplace where humans, cloud services and AI agents all require secure access to company resources. The startup describes its platform as a unified control plane that governs identities across an organisation while replacing legacy identity management tools with an AI-native approach.

Identity and access management, commonly known as IAM, determines who can access an organisation’s data and systems and what they can access. Oak argues that outdated credentials and fragmented identity controls have become a growing security risk, particularly as AI agents gain broader access to enterprise applications. The company believes conventional IAM platforms have struggled to keep pace with these changes.

Before building the product, Marom said the founders spent months speaking with approximately 100 chief information security officers and identity management leaders to better understand the challenges organisations face. Those discussions helped shape Oak’s AI connector framework, which maps user permissions against actual application usage and removes unnecessary access in real time rather than waiting for periodic manual reviews.

Morag said many existing identity management processes remain heavily dependent on manual operations instead of responding dynamically to risk. He pointed to situations such as employees logging in from unusual locations, where current systems may not automatically trigger additional security actions despite the elevated risk.

The company’s founders bring extensive cybersecurity experience to the venture. Morag previously founded Secdo, which was acquired by Palo Alto Networks in 2018, and later founded the cloud identity security startup Ermetic. After Tenable acquired Ermetic for $265 million in 2023, Morag remained with the company as chief product officer before leaving to establish Oak alongside Marom, a former product leader at Tenable, Salesforce and the Israeli military.

While operating in stealth, Oak expanded to a team of about 50 employees and continues to recruit, particularly in the United States, where Morag said the majority of the company’s workforce is expected to be based. He said the newly secured funding will support continued investment in research, development and growth as the company expands its enterprise footprint.

The $60 million seed round was co-led by Accel, CRV and Greylock Partners, with participation from AlphaDrive Ventures, Hetz Ventures and several angel investors. Morag said investor interest was strong from the beginning. At the same time, Accel partner Andrei Brasoveanu cited Morag’s previous track record as a key reason for backing the company again, having invested in Ermetic before its acquisition.

Oak enters an increasingly competitive identity security market as many companies integrate artificial intelligence into enterprise cybersecurity products. Morag acknowledged that competition will be intense but said the company intends to scale rapidly as businesses seek more effective ways to manage digital identities in environments where humans and AI systems increasingly work side by side.