Semgrep, a San Francisco-based application security startup, recently raised $100 million in a Series D funding round, led by Menlo Ventures. This capital boost brings the company’s total funding to $204 million. Along with Menlo Ventures, other prominent investors such as Felicis Ventures, Harpoon Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and Sequoia Capital also participated in the funding round. Semgrep focuses on delivering an autonomous security platform for developers and security engineers, aiming to streamline security practices and improve risk management strategies.
The company’s AppSec platform helps developers transition from traditional security methods to proactive security engineering. Semgrep’s platform combines static analysis with large language models to optimize the identification and prioritization of vulnerabilities while minimizing false positives. The platform not only detects flaws but also assists developers in understanding and resolving issues quickly, acting almost like an additional AppSec engineer. CEO Isaac Evans highlighted the company’s goal of providing autonomous security features, enhancing both the efficiency and effectiveness of security teams.
As competition in the application security industry heats up, Semgrep’s innovative approach of leveraging AI-driven solutions is positioning it to stand out. The platform is designed to offer a more manageable and scalable solution for enterprise-level AppSec programs. Semgrep’s focus on maintaining a balance between deterministic detection and AI-driven contextual analysis enables developers to prioritize vulnerabilities more accurately, helping to streamline remediation efforts.
The funding comes at a time when the application security space is witnessing rapid growth, with new startups promoting AI-enhanced solutions. Semgrep is also dealing with the recent emergence of Opengrep, an open-source fork of their technology, which has sparked debates over licensing and the balance between free and commercial software offerings. To support its expansion, Semgrep has added experienced executives, such as Mark McLaughlin, former CEO of Palo Alto Networks, and Garrett Souza, former VP of Sales at Snyk, who will guide the company as it continues to innovate in the security space.
