Okta announced its acquisition of AI security startup Permiso Security for close to $200 million in an almost all-cash deal, expected to finalize in the third quarter of Okta’s fiscal 2027. The deal was confirmed by a source to TechCrunch, though official terms were not publicly detailed. This move highlights Okta’s strategic focus on enhancing identity threat detection amid increasing enterprise deployment of AI agents and machine identities in cloud environments.

Permiso emerged from stealth in 2022, developing technology that enables security teams to detect suspicious activities after entities have accessed cloud resources. The company, co-founded by former FireEye executives Paul Nguyen and Jason Martin, specializes in identifying attacks that involve stolen or compromised identities within cloud infrastructure. Recently, Permiso expanded its platform to include monitoring AI agents and introduced SandyClaw, a sandbox tool for analyzing AI agent behaviors prior to deployment.

The acquisition comes as identity management evolves beyond simple login verification toward continuous surveillance of users, applications, and AI-driven entities operating in network environments. Okta’s Chief Product Officer, Ely Kahn, emphasized that Permiso’s capabilities will strengthen Okta’s identity security by bringing advanced threat detection and response technology, alongside an expert threat research team, to safeguard autonomous and non-human identities.

Prior to the acquisition, Permiso had raised about $29 million, including an $18.5 million Series A round in April 2024 led by Altimeter Capital that valued the startup at around $80 million. Okta’s purchase of Permiso underscores the growing importance of securing AI-enabled automation and machine identities as enterprises integrate AI deeper into their operational ecosystems.