Salt Security
Salt Security is a Palo Alto-based API security company that provides an AI-driven platform for discovering, monitoring, and protecting APIs and agentic AI infrastructure for global enterprises across financial services, healthcare, retail, SaaS, and industrial sectors.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2015
- HeadquartersPalo Alto, United States
- Headcount101–250
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Salt Security does
Salt Security is a Palo Alto-headquartered, venture-backed API security company (with Israeli origins) that provides the Salt Agentic Security Platform — a unified platform that discovers, monitors, and protects APIs and the agentic AI stack across cloud-native and hybrid enterprise environments. The platform is composed of integrated modules: Salt Surface for attack surface and shadow/zombie API discovery, Salt Illuminate as the AI-driven posture and risk-scoring engine (mapping to PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, NIST, SOC 2, and EU AI Act), Salt Collect for raw API traffic ingestion, Salt Protect for runtime behavioral threat detection, Salt Connect for cloud and repository ingestion (including Salt GitHub Connect, Salt Databricks Connector, Salt Netlify Collector), and Salt Code for policy enforcement inside AI coding assistants. Platform-wide AI features include the Ask Pepper AI generative analyst assistant (built on Amazon Bedrock), Salt MCP Finder for Model Context Protocol server discovery, and MCP threat protection for AWS WAF. The platform is sold via enterprise field sales targeting Fortune 500 and complex API deployments, a technology and channel partner program (STEP), and cloud marketplace listings (AWS Marketplace, GCP, Azure).
Founded in 2015 by co-founders Roey Eliyahu (CEO) and Michael Nicosia (COO), Salt Security has raised $271 million across eight funding rounds, including a $140 million Series D in February 2022 led by Alphabet's CapitalG that valued the company at $1.4 billion (unicorn status), a $70 million Series C in May 2021 led by Advent International, and a strategic investment from CrowdStrike's Falcon Fund in September 2022. The company serves global enterprises across financial services, retail, healthcare, SaaS, and industrial sectors — with named customers including Standard Bank, Siemens, Seminole Hard Rock Support Services, Hyundai, Stryker, and SoFi. Revenue is generated primarily through recurring subscription contracts for the API security platform, supplemented by professional services, channel partner revenue, and marketplace transactions. The company is recognized as a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Application Security Testing (via HCL AppScan), named to CRN's 2026 Security 100 list, and is headquartered at 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto, CA 94303, with global operations spanning North America, EMEA, APAC, and LATAM.
The company operates a subscription-based revenue model with predictable recurring enterprise contracts, professional services for deployment and integration, channel partner revenue through technology alliances (most notably HCL AppScan and CrowdStrike Falcon), and cloud marketplace transactions via AWS Marketplace. Salt Security has explicitly expanded its addressable market from API security into the agentic AI security category through the March 2026 launch of the Salt Agentic Security Platform and the June 2026 launch of Salt Code, with a stated goal of securing LLMs, MCP servers, and APIs across enterprise AI environments.
Salt Security firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Salt Security
- Legal name
- Salt Security Inc.
- Website
- https://salt.security
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2015
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 101–250 employees
- Short description
- Salt Security is a Palo Alto-based API security company that provides an AI-driven platform for discovering, monitoring, and protecting APIs and agentic AI infrastructure for global enterprises across financial services, healthcare, retail, SaaS, and industrial sectors.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Salt Security industry classification
Industry- Product category
- API Security Platform
- NAICS
- Security Systems Services (56162)
- SIC
- Services-Detective, Guard & Armored Car Services (7381)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Security Architecture & Engineering Advisory (Zero Trust, IAM, Network) (BPAKADAF)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Intrusion Detection & Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS) (HDAFAFAD)
Keywords
Where Salt Security is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Palo Alto
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Salt Security business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- API Security Platform Subscriptions: Recurring subscription revenue from enterprise customers for the Salt Security API protection platform with predictable, recurring contracts
- Professional Services and Implementation: Professional services for deployment, integration with partner platforms, and ongoing customer success
- Channel Partner Revenue: Revenue through channel partners, technology alliances, and marketplace sales (AWS Marketplace, etc.)
Go-to-market motion3 records
Salt Security product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Salt Security provides an enterprise API protection platform that discovers all APIs (including shadow and zombie APIs), analyzes API posture, detects and blocks API attacks in real time using patented behavioral analysis and machine learning, and extends coverage to AI agents and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers via its Agentic Security Platform. The platform is sold as a SaaS subscription to enterprise security teams across financial services, retail, healthcare, SaaS, and other API-intensive industries.
Product overview
Salt Security sells a single unified API security platform, the Salt Agentic Security Platform, composed of several integrated modules: Salt Surface for API and attack-surface discovery, Salt Illuminate as the AI-driven posture and risk-scoring engine, Salt Connect for ingesting API definitions from gateways, clouds, and repositories (including the Salt GitHub Connect, Salt Databricks Connector, and Salt Netlify Collector add-ons), Salt Collect for raw traffic ingestion, Salt Protect for runtime API attack detection and blocking, and Salt Code (launched June 2026) for code-level API security and policy enforcement. Platform-wide AI features include Ask Pepper AI (a generative-AI analyst assistant), Salt MCP Finder, and MCP threat protection for AWS WAF, all delivered as add-ons that extend the core agentic platform.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Salt Illuminate: Core API discovery, posture, and threat detection platform (described on the platform page as 'Illuminate' and as the Salt Illuminate platform).
- Salt Surface
- Salt Connect
- Salt Code
- Salt Collect
- Salt Protect
- Agentic Security Platform
- Ask Pepper AI
- Salt MCP Finder
- Salt Labs
Products and services
- Salt Agentic Security Platform The unified core platform that orchestrates agentic discovery, posture management, and runtime protection across every agent, MCP server, and API in an enterprise environment, using Salt's Agentic Security Graph and AI-driven remediation workflows.
- Salt Illuminate An AI-driven posture engine that continuously analyzes every API's configuration and traffic, maps findings to frameworks such as PCI DSS, GDPR, NIST, and SOC 2, and produces a per-API Risk Score for security and compliance teams.
- Salt Surface Agentless attack-surface management module that continuously discovers every API (including shadow, zombie, and undocumented APIs) across customer environments and inventories sensitive data exposure.
- Salt Connect Connectivity module that bridges discovered APIs into the Salt platform via integrations with API gateways, cloud providers, and source-control repositories, enabling ingestion of API definitions and traffic across AWS, Azure, GCP, GitHub, and others.
- Salt Code Code-level API security module that discovers APIs in source code and uses AI (including MCP-enabled AI coding assistants) to enforce and remediate security policies at the source, integrating with code repositories and CI/CD pipelines.
- Salt Collect Data collection module that ingests and normalizes raw API traffic and metadata across cloud, gateway, and application sources for downstream analysis by Salt's AI engine.
- Salt Protect
Quantifiable outcome
- Reduces MTTD for API threats by detecting attacks weeks before traditional tools trigger alerts
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Salt Security
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Ideal customer profiles1 record
Salt Security technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration47 records
AI capability12 records
Salt Security partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.
- Estee Preciado (Head of Global Alliances)coreHead of Global Alliances developing Salt Security's global partnership strategy, recognized on CRN's 2026 Women of the Channel list for channel excellence
- SiemenscoreEarly customer of the Salt Agentic Security Platform, using it to gain visibility into expanding AI environments
- DatabrickscoreSpecialized Salt Databricks Connector providing universal visibility for API security in Databricks environments, targeting the Agentic Action Layer
- NetlifycoreSalt Netlify Collector extending API security visibility to decoupled frontend architectures and edge environments
- GitHubcoreGitHub Connect integration for proactive discovery of shadow APIs and MCP risks in code repositories before deployment
- HCL AppScan / HCLSoftwareflagshipDeep technical integration with HCL AppScan, with Salt Security's API security platform powering HCL AppScan's API security capabilities. HCLSoftware recognized as Leader in 2025 Gartner MQ for AST.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreNative integration with AWS for cloud deployments, Salt MCP Finder, and Ask Pepper AI built on Amazon Bedrock. Available via AWS Marketplace.
- Microsoft AzurecoreNative integration with Azure Sentinel and Defender for unified threat visibility and response in cloud environments
- CrowdStrikeflagshipCrowdStrike's Falcon Fund has invested in Salt Security, establishing a strategic partnership. Eric Schwake serves as Director of Cybersecurity Strategy at Salt, indicating deep CrowdStrike relationship. Joint go-to-market for API security.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Salt Security competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Noname Security (Akamai): Pre-acquisition Noname was the closest direct API security competitor to Salt, offering API posture management and runtime protection. It was acquired by Akamai in 2024 and now competes directly with Salt inside Akamai's broader App & API Security portfolio.
- Imperva: Imperva's API Security (formerly CloudVector) provides API discovery, classification, and runtime protection — directly overlapping Salt Surface, Illuminate, and Protect modules for similar enterprise security buyers.
- Wallarm: Wallarm offers API security, WAAP, and AI/LLM security including protection for AI agents and MCP-style traffic. It targets a similar enterprise buyer and is a credible next-best alternative to Salt, particularly in agentic AI scenarios.
- Data Theorem: Data Theorem provides API discovery, runtime protection, and mobile app security with an emphasis on continuous analysis. It competes head-to-head with Salt's Surface, Illuminate, and Protect modules for mid-market and enterprise API security budgets.
- 42Crunch: 42Crunch focuses on API security-by-design and runtime protection through API contract scanning and enforcement, with overlap to Salt Illuminate and Protect. It represents an emerging best-of-breed alternative, particularly for API-development-led buyers.
- Cequence Security: Cequence provides API discovery, risk assessment, and runtime bot/API threat protection. It is a direct competitor to Salt in the runtime API protection category for large enterprises.
- Traceable AI: Traceable AI provides API discovery, threat detection, and behavioral analytics with an emphasis on AI/LLM traffic. It is a closely comparable competitor to Salt, particularly in API behavioral analytics and emerging agentic-AI security scenarios.
Broad incumbents
- Cloudflare: Cloudflare offers API Shield and broader application/edge security that overlap directly with Salt's runtime API protection. As a much larger platform with a global edge network, Cloudflare represents the bundled-incumbent threat to Salt's best-of-breed positioning.
- Microsoft Defender for APIs: Microsoft Defender for APIs, part of Defender for Cloud, provides discovery, posture, and runtime protection for Azure-hosted APIs. As a bundled native offering inside the Azure ecosystem (where Salt already integrates), it competes on convenience and price for Azure-centric customers.
- Wiz: Wiz is a leading CNAPP that has expanded into API security posture as part of its cloud-native application protection platform. As a fast-growing incumbent with massive enterprise distribution, Wiz represents the platform-consolidation threat to standalone API security vendors like Salt.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Salt Security social profiles
Digital presenceSalt Security compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance6 records
Salt Security financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Salt Security leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles11 records
Salt Security funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds8 records
Investors13 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Salt Security M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Salt Security
What does Salt Security do?
Salt Security provides an enterprise API protection platform that discovers all APIs (including shadow and zombie APIs), analyzes API posture, detects and blocks API attacks in real time using patented behavioral analysis and machine learning, and extends coverage to AI agents and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers via its Agentic Security Platform. The platform is sold as a SaaS subscription to enterprise security teams across financial services, retail, healthcare, SaaS, and other API-intensive industries.
Is Salt Security a public or private company?
Salt Security is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Salt Security founded?
Salt Security was founded in 2015. It employs 101 to 250 people.
Where is Salt Security based?
Salt Security is headquartered in Palo Alto, United States, in the North America region.
How does Salt Security make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. API Security Platform Subscriptions are the primary driver. The others are professional Services and Implementation and channel Partner Revenue.
Who are Salt Security's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Noname Security (Akamai), Imperva, Wallarm, Data Theorem, 42Crunch, Cequence Security and Traceable AI. Broad incumbents are Cloudflare, Microsoft Defender for APIs and Wiz.
Does Salt Security have an API?
No public API is recorded for Salt Security.
What industry is Salt Security in?
Salt Security's product category is API Security Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAKADAF, Security Architecture & Engineering Advisory (Zero Trust, IAM, Network), with a secondary code of HDAFAFAD, Intrusion Detection & Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS). Its NAICS code is 56162 and its SIC code is 7381.