Software-as-a-service (Saas) is a revolution, enabling people throughout a business to buy the technology tools they need to do their jobs themselves, rather than waiting for IT to install and maintain software on their behalf. But that huge positive comes with downsides too, exposing businesses to cost and security risks if there is no control over SaaS use and spending.
That’s where Zluri comes in. The Californian business, which is today unveiling a $20 million Series B fund raise, offers a SaaS management platform. Its tools enable IT managers to keep track of their organisation’s SaaS usage, monitoring who in the business has access to which apps, as well as how much they are spending, and giving them a means through which to take back control.
This isn’t Zluri’s first fund-raise, with Forbes reporting on its Series A round in January 2021. But Ritish Reddy, who co-founded the business with colleagues Chaithanya Yambari and Sethu Meenakshisundaram, says the business has evolved rapidly since then. “We’ve transformed since our Series A,” he says, pointing to the need for constant renewal in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
It’s not simply that sales growth and product evolution have prompted a significant expansion of the team, though Zluri’s workforce has more than doubled to around 160 employees today. What’s also changed is the nature of the value proposition.
First, says Reddy, an increasing number of Zluri’s clients are now mid-market enterprise customers with really significant SaaS footprints – they may be running well in excess of 1,000 applications – and a growing compliance headache. They may need to be able to account for every single user for GDPR purposes, for example. Zluri has therefore developed a governance tool that helps with on- and off-boarding of application users, automates access request management and, most importantly of all, produces an audit of access.
Second, the company has responded to the explosion of generative AI by incorporating natural language processing (NLP) features on its platform. Business users wanting to customise apps can now use Zluri to do that for them, with requests made conversationally; no coding experience or knowledge is required.
The idea is that Zluri’s platform should enable the IT department to monitor and manage the entire organisation’s SaaS usage from a single platform, with functionality such as the governance tool and the NLP features than available as and when they are needed. “We’re building something for what has become a cloud-first world,” says Reddy. “We develop tools based on the needs of our community of customers.”
What that means in practice is that a business using Zluri avoids the problem of a shadow IT system developing, where the central IT organisation does not know who has installed applications and how they’re being used. This should also enable cost savings, since IT can monitor which SaaS licenses are being used and which are redundant but still being paid for.
Not surprisingly, the market for such tools is large. A recent report from Proficient Market Insights suggests the SaaS management industry was worth around $600 million globally last year, but predicted this figure would grow to around $2.5 billion by 2029. The market research group Garter points to a string of SaaS management tools that provide competition to Zluri. Examples include Torii, Bettercloud and Productiv.
However, Zluri’s investors are convinced the company has distinct competitive advantages. The Series B round is led by Lightspeed, with participation from existing investors including MassMutual Ventures, Endiya Partners and Kalaari Capital, and takes the total amount of money raised by the business to $20 million.
“The Zluri team have demonstrated strong market traction, driven by an innovative architecture addressing the twin drivers of cybersecurity and pressure on IT to reduce cost,” says Dev Khare, a partner att Lightspeed.
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