Identity has become one of the most important layers of modern enterprise security, but the technology organizations buy to manage it can be difficult to deploy at scale. For many companies, implementing an identity and access management program involves years of work, significant professional services spending and an ongoing reliance on specialized expertise.
As reported by Axios, Insight Partners and Glilot Capital are co-leading a $20 million investment in Way Security, a company founded by former security leaders Yossi Barishev and Yonatan Rosenberg. The startup is taking aim at the operational challenges surrounding IAM with an AI-powered, agentic platform designed to automate work that has traditionally depended on consultants and internal engineering teams.
Way Security’s strategy is to help enterprises make better use of the identity platforms they already own. Instead of replacing existing IAM infrastructure, its platform is designed to automate the work needed to deploy, manage and extend identity controls across complex enterprise environments.
The Hidden Economics Of IAM
The cost of an IAM program can extend well beyond the initial software purchase. Way Security says enterprise implementations can run years past schedule and reach seven- or eight-digit cost figures while still delivering less than promised. Implementation, customization and ongoing operational services can also cost three to five times more than the software itself.
That dynamic has created a services ecosystem that the company says has become larger than the IAM software market it supports. Way Security is targeting this gap with AI-driven automation and agentic workflows that can execute operational tasks traditionally performed by consultants, system integrators and internal engineering resources.
“IAM is the only space in cyber where overspending and under-delivering is an acceptable reality,” said Barishev, co-founder and CEO of Way Security. “The more time we spent doing IAM, the more we realized how the industry normalized mediocrity and has almost given up trying to solve some of its biggest challenges.”
Automating The Work Enterprises Struggle To Complete
Way Security’s platform is designed to automate activities involving identity lifecycle management, access governance, authentication and policy enforcement. The company says it can help organizations apply identity controls across different types of identities and systems without custom integrations, manual workflows or ongoing dependence on application owners.
The platform also aims to address one of the more difficult parts of enterprise identity: applications that do not easily integrate with conventional IAM systems. Way Security extends coverage to legacy, homegrown and custom applications that do not support standard federation protocols, connecting them to the IGA, IdP and authentication controls organizations already own.
“Most IAM teams aren’t looking to replace the platforms they’ve already invested in,” said Rosenberg, co-founder and CTO. “They’re looking to finally get the return on investment they were promised. We built Way Security to automate the work that has traditionally stood between buying an IAM platform and actually realizing its value.”
The founders’ own careers helped shape the company’s approach. Barishev and Rosenberg have advised Fortune 500 organizations through complex identity initiatives and led enterprise security organizations. They also spent years working on incident response efforts involving major cyber incidents, where weak identity controls repeatedly emerged as a root cause or critical enabler of attacks.
A New Bet On Identity Operations
The investment from Insight Partners and Glilot Capital reflects a view that the next opportunity in IAM may lie in improving how identity technology is operationalized rather than simply adding another platform to the market.
“Identity is one of the most critical layers of enterprise security, yet organizations still struggle to operationalize their investments efficiently,” said Jeff Horing, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Insight Partners. “Way Security is addressing a large and persistent gap between IAM software and real-world execution.”
Way Security says it is already working with Fortune 500 companies, global healthcare organizations and financial institutions. The company plans to use the new capital to aggressively expand its U.S. presence and continue investing in its identity operations platform.
For Way Security, the larger ambition is to make IAM less dependent on manual execution and costly services. By focusing on the operational layer, the company is betting that enterprises can get more from the identity infrastructure they have already purchased—and that the market for making those systems work may be as significant as the software market itself.
