CyberArk has acquired Boston-based startup Zilla as a part of its plans so as to add identification governance and administration (IGA) capabilities to its privilege entry administration (PAM) platform. The $165 million deal introduced Thursday has already closed.
Zella is a small IAG supplier that was led by Aveksa founder and CEO Deepak Taneja. CyberArk mentioned it had $5 million in annual recurring income final 12 months, 40 staff, and 125 prospects. Throughout CyberArk’s earnings name with traders, CEO Matt Cohen touted Zilla’s “fashionable” IGA platform.
“In stark distinction to legacy IGA programs, Zilla’s fashionable IGA SaaS [software-as-a-service] platform was constructed from scratch to deal with at present’s digital environments characterised by an explosion of workers functions, decentralized administration, and identity-based safety threats,” Cohen mentioned. “Leveraging AI-driven position administration, Zilla automates the processes of identification, compliance, and provisioning, making governance straightforward, intuitive, and all-inclusive for the fashionable enterprise.”
Cohen famous that prospects can deploy Zilla 5 instances quicker than conventional IGA choices, leading to 60% fewer service tickets.
“Legacy IGA are sometimes sluggish to deploy, tough to combine, have restricted integration with fashionable programs, and are reliant on guide processes,” Cohen mentioned.
As a result of CyberArk is integrating Zilla into its platform, Cohen mentioned that along with managing entitlements, provisioning, and compliance, the identical software will grant entry and supply controls.
“That built-in nature then creates a way more safe footprint throughout these fashionable environments,” he mentioned.
CyberArk, whose annual revenues topped $1 billion for the primary time final 12 months, has aggressively expanded its PAM and identification and entry administration (IAM) portfolio. Final 12 months, CyberArk acquired nonhuman identification supplier Venafi for $1.6 billion.
Identification and Entry Governance Is Important
CyberArk’s announcement got here on the identical day that SailPoint returned to the general public markets, two years after Thoma Bravo bought it for $6.9 billion and took it personal. Thoma Bravo spun out 60 million shares (roughly 12% of the corporate, to lift an estimated $1.38 billion within the first main tech IPO of 2025. SailPoint, the biggest IGA supplier, estimated in its prospectus recurring revenues of $875 million within the fiscal 12 months that ended Jan. 31, a 41% improve over the prior 12 months. Though the corporate hasn’t been worthwhile, SailPoint reported internet loss improved to $235.7 million within the first 9 months of 2024, a 23.5% enchancment over the earlier 12 months.
Simply as CyberArk is increasing its IGA choices, SailPoint has been transferring into CyberArk’s area with its 2023 acquisition of PAM supplier Osirium. In December, SailPoint acquired Imprivata’s IGA unit for $10.7 million, plus as much as $7.4 million in earnouts.
Alex Bovee, CEO of ConductorOne, one other IGA startup that gives an SaaS-based providing to compete with SailPoint and Zilla, says IGA has change into an more and more important part of cybersecurity posture.
“I feel the bull view on that is that each single safety firm is recognizing that identification and identification governance are vital components of the stack, and that is why CyberArk made this funding,” Bovee mentioned. “CyberArk is historically a privileged entry administration answer, however the future is these converged identification platforms.”
