- Updated: February 18, 2026
- 7 min read
Former Microsoft PM Launches Venice to Challenge CyberArk in IAM Market
Venice, a cybersecurity startup founded by former Microsoft product manager Rotem Lurie, has secured a $20 million Series A round to directly challenge incumbents such as CyberArk and Okta in the identity and access management (IAM) market.
Why Venice Matters for Modern IAM
As AI agents, chatbots, and automated services proliferate across enterprises, the need for a unified, just‑in‑time identity framework has become a strategic priority. Venice positions itself at the intersection of legacy privileged‑access tools and next‑generation cloud IAM, promising to replace entrenched solutions within 18 months. For CIOs, CTOs, and security engineers, this development signals a potential shift in how privileged credentials are provisioned, audited, and revoked.
Founder Profile: From Microsoft to a CyberArk Challenger
Rotem Lurie’s résumé reads like a VC checklist. A daughter of pioneering Israeli programmers, she served four and a half years as a lieutenant in Unit 8200, Israel’s elite intelligence corps, before joining Microsoft. At Microsoft she led product development for what later became Defender for Identity, gaining deep exposure to enterprise‑grade IAM challenges.
After Microsoft, Lurie became the first product hire at Axis Security, a startup that was acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise for $500 million in 2022. A brief stint at YL Ventures sharpened her perspective on “build‑to‑acquire” versus “build‑to‑win” strategies, prompting her to launch Venice with a long‑term vision: a platform that can survive and thrive alongside the most complex hybrid environments.
Venice: Mission, Vision, and Core Offering
Venice’s mission is simple yet ambitious: consolidate every privileged‑access need—human, service‑account, AI‑agent—into a single, AI‑driven console. The platform supports on‑premises servers, SaaS applications, and multi‑cloud workloads, delivering just‑in‑time (JIT) permissions that expire the moment a task completes. This “hybrid‑first” stance differentiates Venice from rivals that focus exclusively on cloud‑only or legacy‑only solutions.
The product’s architecture leverages AI‑powered policy generation, automated credential rotation, and real‑time risk scoring. According to Lurie, implementation time has dropped from the industry‑standard six‑month to two‑year window to just one and a half weeks, thanks to built‑in automation and pre‑configured policy templates.
Series A Funding: $20 Million Backed by Top VCs
In December 2025, Venice closed a $20 million Series A round led by IVP, with participation from Index Ventures. The round also attracted strategic angels such as Assaf Rappaport, co‑founder of Wiz, and Raaz Herzberg, former CMO of Wiz and Lurie’s former Microsoft colleague. The capital will accelerate product development, expand the North American go‑to‑market team, and fund a global partner ecosystem.
Market Landscape: CyberArk, Okta, and the Hybrid Challenge
The IAM market is projected to exceed $24 billion in 2025, growing at a 13 % CAGR. Legacy players like CyberArk dominate privileged‑access management (PAM), while Okta leads the broader identity‑as‑a‑service (IDaaS) space. Both, however, struggle with the rapid rise of non‑human actors that require credentialed access to APIs, containers, and AI agents.
Venice’s hybrid focus directly addresses this gap. By unifying on‑prem and cloud controls, it reduces the “tool sprawl” that typically forces security teams to juggle ten or more separate solutions. This consolidation not only cuts costs but also minimizes attack surface—a key selling point for Fortune 500 customers still operating legacy data centers alongside modern cloud workloads.
Key Technical Pillars
- AI‑Driven Policy Engine: Generates least‑privilege policies on the fly, using contextual signals from user behavior and workload characteristics.
- Just‑In‑Time Access: Grants time‑boxed credentials that automatically expire, eliminating standing privileged accounts.
- Unified Auditing: Centralized logs across on‑prem, SaaS, and cloud resources, enabling rapid forensic investigations.
- Zero‑Trust Integration: Seamlessly plugs into existing Zero‑Trust architectures, supporting SSO, MFA, and conditional access.
The platform’s SaaS subscription model is positioned as a cost‑effective alternative to traditional PAM solutions that rely heavily on professional‑services engagements. As Lurie explains, “We reduce the total cost of ownership not by being cheap, but by eliminating the consulting tax that comes with complex deployments.”
How Venice’s Approach Mirrors UBOS’s Low‑Code AI Platform
While Venice builds a specialized IAM engine, UBOS platform overview demonstrates a parallel philosophy: empower enterprises to create AI‑driven applications without deep code expertise. Both solutions champion rapid deployment—Venice with its one‑and‑a‑half‑week rollout, UBOS with its UBOS templates for quick start that let teams prototype security workflows in hours.
For security leaders evaluating a broader AI strategy, UBOS’s Enterprise AI platform by UBOS offers complementary capabilities such as OpenAI ChatGPT integration and Chroma DB integration, which can enrich IAM data with semantic search and anomaly detection.
Future Outlook: Roadmap, Timeline, and Adoption Forecast
Venice’s roadmap emphasizes three pillars for the next 24 months:
- AI‑Enhanced Threat Hunting: Integrating generative AI to suggest remediation steps in real time.
- Extended Agent Support: Native connectors for emerging AI agents, including large‑language‑model (LLM) workloads.
- Global Compliance Modules: Pre‑built policy packs for GDPR, CCPA, and emerging AI‑ethics regulations.
By Q4 2026, Venice aims to have at least 30 Fortune 500 customers fully migrated, a milestone that would validate its claim of “completely replacing” legacy vendors. The company also plans to launch a partner ecosystem, leveraging the UBOS partner program model as a template for building third‑party integrations and consulting services.
Pricing Model: Subscription with Transparent Tiers
Venice adopts a tiered subscription model based on the number of privileged identities and the breadth of environments covered. While exact figures are undisclosed, the structure mirrors the simplicity of UBOS pricing plans, which offer predictable monthly costs and eliminate hidden professional‑services fees.
Who Should Pay Attention?
IT security leaders will find Venice’s unified console a decisive factor in reducing audit fatigue. CIOs and CTOs can leverage the rapid deployment timeline to meet compliance deadlines without lengthy integration projects. Security engineers gain a programmable API that can be extended via low‑code tools such as the Workflow automation studio. Finally, startup founders building AI‑driven products can adopt Venice’s IAM layer to secure their own agents, much like the AI Chatbot template does for conversational bots.
Complementary AI Tools in the UBOS Marketplace
For organizations looking to augment their security posture with AI analytics, the UBOS marketplace offers several ready‑made solutions:
- AI SEO Analyzer – helps security blogs stay discoverable.
- AI Article Copywriter – automates policy documentation.
- AI Video Generator – creates training videos for secure credential handling.
- AI Image Generator – visualizes network topology with risk overlays.
- AI Email Marketing – can be repurposed for phishing‑simulation campaigns.
Integration Highlights: From ChatGPT to Voice AI
Venice’s API-first design makes it straightforward to plug into existing communication channels. For example, the Telegram integration on UBOS enables security alerts to be pushed directly to incident‑response teams. Combining this with the ChatGPT and Telegram integration creates an interactive chatbot that can answer privileged‑access queries in real time.
Voice‑enabled workflows are also possible via the ElevenLabs AI voice integration, allowing security analysts to request temporary credentials through spoken commands—an emerging use‑case for SOCs operating in noisy environments.
What’s Next for Your Organization?
If you’re evaluating a next‑generation IAM solution, consider a pilot with Venice to benchmark implementation speed and cost savings against your existing PAM stack. Simultaneously, explore the UBOS homepage for low‑code AI tools that can accelerate security automation and reporting.
Stay ahead of the curve—read the original TechCrunch article for the full interview, and explore our About UBOS page to learn how our ecosystem supports innovative security startups like Venice.