[Funding alert] Wipro Ventures invests in cybersecurity firm CloudKnox Security

IT major Wipro on Thursday said its investment arm has invested in cybersecurity firm CloudKnox Security.

The investment has been made by Wipro Ventures, but the amount invested has not been disclosed.

Besides, Wipro has tied up with the company to avail solutions that will enable enterprises to pro-actively protect and manage their hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructure by continuously detecting and remediating over permissioned identities, Wipro said in a statement.

“Wipro Ventures – the corporate investment arm of Wipro – invested in CloudKnox through its recently announced $150 million Fund II, to strengthen the strategic partnership,” it added.

Rapid adoption of hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructure by enterprises is leading to an increase in the attack surface area, and as a result, exposing them to new cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

Wipro will offer access governance for hybrid cloud “as-a-service” offering, powered by CloudKnox, the statement said, adding that the company will leverage its cyber defence centres to deliver the service.

“While adoption of private and public cloud is increasing, existing security solutions are inadequate to manage identities and resources across such a hybrid environment,” said Sheetal Mehta, Wipro Chief Information Security Officer and Senior Vice President (Cybersecurity and Risk Services).

“With this partnership, Wipro has a first-mover advantage, offering Identity Governance and secure Cloud Workloads for customers who are migrating and managing Hybrid Cloud infrastructures,” Mehta said.

The investment expands Wipro’s cloud security portfolio to meet growing demand from enterprises to protect their cloud infrastructure from identities with excessive high risk permissions, the statement said.

Managed by Biplab Adhya and Venu Pemmaraju, Wipro Ventures has so far invested in 16 early- to mid-stage startups including 11 in the US, four in Israel, and one in India. According to Wipro, more than 100 of its global customers have benefitted by deploying solutions from these portfolio companies.

It will continue to invest in early to mid-stage companies, building innovative enterprise software solutions across key areas including cybersecurity, application development, analytics, cloud infrastructure, test automation, and AI, the company said in a press release.

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)