Customer data is a precious and now highly regulated corporate asset. As a result, companies need regular security audits to make sure they are properly protecting their clients’ private information, complying with federal regulations, and avoiding liability and costly fines.
Not surprisingly, the market for compliance management software is large and growing, valued at $32.1 billion in 2020 and projected to reach $74.8 billion by 2028, according to Verified Market Research.
Drata is a relatively newly launched and fast-growing company providing an advanced security and compliance automation platform with the mission to help companies maintain the trust of their users, customers, partners, and prospects.
Founded in 2020 by Adam Markowitz, Daniel Marashlian, and Troy Markowitz, the San Diego-based company helps companies streamline their SOC 2 (a voluntary compliance standard developed by the American Institute of CPAs, which specifies how organizations should manage customer data) and over 10 other compliance frameworks, regulations and standards through continuous, automated control monitoring and evidence collection, resulting in lower costs and time spent preparing for annual audits.
“Trust is kind of the theme of my career,” says Drata Co-Founder and CEO Adam Markowitz. He landed his dream job in 2008 as an aerospace engineer working on NASA’s space shuttle engine program after graduating from college by creating a portfolio of his accomplishments and capabilities for his job interview to prove his skill and earn the trust of his employers. When NASA retired that program in 2011, Markowitz would team up with Daniel Marashlian, and Troy Markowitz to form their own company called Portfolium in 2013 that would further build on the CV portfolio idea into its own company.
When that program was discontinued at NASA in 2011, Markowitz would team up with Daniel Marashlian, and Troy Markowitz to form their own company called Portfolium in 2013 that would further build on the CV portfolio idea into a separate company. Portfolium quickly found market traction selling into universities and grew to a network of more than 5 million students. The company was acquired in 2019 by Instructure.
“To sell to Universities, we had to prove that their data was safe and secure and we took the time, resources and effort to build a system to automate the process. After the acquisition, myself and the same co-founders came back together in 2020 to start Drata and basically help companies stand up and maintain their security compliance posture, so they could earn the trust of those they want to do business with,” says Markowitz.
Today, Drata is one of the fastest growing SaaS companies. Within the first two months of formally launching in January of 2021, they brought on their first 100 customers. Over the next 18 months they would count 1,000s of customers and bring on over 250 employees in both the US and globally as they expand internationally.
“It's definitely the rocket ship that people describe made possible by the muscle memory of the early team coming back together, having solved a similar problem for ourselves in our prior life. The speed at which we've been able to execute, I think, is 100% attributed to trust as the foundation of our core values. We’re in the business of trust and our product helps companies build trust with their customers. We breathe, live and sleep trust here,” says Markowitz.
That growth trajectory has allowed the company to attract $128.2 million in venture funding to date. Its latest Nov. 8, 2021 $100 million B Round led by ICONIQ Growth, with additional investments from Alkeon Capital and Salesforce Ventures, already valued the company at $1 billion. Additional investors include GGV Capital, Cowboy Ventures, Leaders Fund and others. “We're also able to attract investors like SVCI, a group of about 50 CISOs from Silicon Valley's top tech companies, so that extra endorsement helps show the world what we're up to, and this new way of doing things,” says Markowitz.
Markowitz grew up in Los Angeles. His father worked in special effects for the film industry. He grew up playing competitive team sports, which helped shape his competitiveness and learning the importance of teamwork and leadership. “I attribute the obsessive, kind of relentless mentality to my mother. My dad provided the perspective and appreciation for the selflessness aspect of being a CEO. My dad always said he's never worked a day in his life. He loves what he does. I also have two older siblings, which I think helped a lot growing up. Watching them gave me the confidence to try anything and starting a company is one of the hardest things you can do,” says Markowitz.
He moved to San Diego where he graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a degree in structural engineering and aerospace structures and later earned his masters in astronautical engineering from the University of Southern California. After graduating he was hired by Aerojet Rocketdyne as an aerospace engineer in 2008 after creating the CV Portfolio program that would serve as the basis for the future development of the two companies he co-founded.
As for the future? “Our mission is to help ensure the future of trust in the cloud, by really leading the way when it comes to continuous automated compliance, which is new. So the vision is to be the trust layer between great companies and those they do business with and to be that real time system of record for a company's security compliance posture. On top of that, we think we could build unlimited applications, all centered around trust,” concludes Markowitz.
Fast-Growing Drata Provides Security And Compliance Automation Platform - Forbes
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