Oso
Oso provides authorization-as-a-service and AI agent security controls to enterprise engineering teams. Founded in 2019, the company delivers its Polar policy language, Oso Cloud managed service, and Oso for Agents platform to customers including Salesforce, Visa, Verizon, and Wayfair.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersNew York, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Oso does
Oso is an authorization-as-a-service company that provides centralized policy infrastructure and, more recently, AI agent security controls to enterprise engineering teams. Founded in 2019 and headquartered in New York, Oso built Polar, a proprietary declarative policy language for expressing RBAC, ReBAC, ABAC, and AnyBAC authorization models, implemented in a Rust runtime. The company distributes the Polar language through open-source client libraries in six languages (Node.js, Python, Go, Rust, Ruby, Java) and a managed cloud service, Oso Cloud, that exposes REST APIs for permission checks and fact management with sub-10ms p95 latency, 99.99% uptime, and 1M+ requests/sec capacity across 30+ availability zones.
Oso's product portfolio spans Oso for Apps (traditional application authorization), Oso Cloud (managed service), Polar (policy language and SDKs), Oso Fallback Nodes (in-VPC disaster recovery), SQLAlchemy/pgvector integration (authorization at the data layer for RAG pipelines), Authorization Academy (developer education), the Rogue Agents Registry (public AI agent threat catalog), and the Oso for Agents platform launched in 2025 for discovering, monitoring, detecting, controlling, and reporting on AI agent behavior in production. Go-to-market combines enterprise field sales with product-led free-tier onboarding and developer community programs. Customers include Salesforce, Verizon, Visa, Wayfair, Duolingo, Brex, PagerDuty, 1Password, Productboard, Oyster, Roblox, Spring Health, Intercom, and Clay.
Oso has raised approximately $25.9M total across a 2019 seed (~$2.7M, Sequoia), a March 2021 Series A ($8.2M, Sequoia-led), and a June 2023 Series B ($15M, Felicis-led). The company operates a remote-first distributed team of 11–50 employees, holds SOC 1 Type I, SOC 2 Type I, and GDPR compliance certifications, and is led by co-founders Graham Neray (CEO) and Sam Scott (CTO). Pricing is usage-based on Monthly Active Users and is not publicly disclosed.
Oso firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Oso
- Legal name
- Oso Security, Inc.
- Website
- https://osohq.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Oso provides authorization-as-a-service and AI agent security controls to enterprise engineering teams. Founded in 2019, the company delivers its Polar policy language, Oso Cloud managed service, and Oso for Agents platform to customers including Salesforce, Visa, Verizon, and Wayfair.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Oso industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Authorization Software
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Single Sign-On (SSO) & Federation (SAML/OIDC, Identity Providers) (HDAEAJAB)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Identity & Access Management (IAM) Administration Services (BPAEABAJ)
Keywords
Where Oso is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New York
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Oso business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Authorization-as-a-Service Subscription: SaaS subscription model providing authorization infrastructure as a managed cloud service, billed based on Monthly Active Users (MAU) consumption.
- Usage-based Billing: Consumption-based pricing tied to Monthly Active Users, with the free tier available for development and testing purposes.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free tier for development and testing |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Usage-based paid tier |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
Oso product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Oso sells a managed authorization-as-a-service platform built around the Polar declarative policy language and the Oso Cloud runtime, enabling developers to implement RBAC, ReBAC, ABAC, and AnyBAC access control models via SDKs in Node.js, Python, Go, Rust, Ruby, and Java. The company also offers Oso for Agents, a security and control platform for AI agents with discover, monitor, detect, control, and report capabilities. Customers include Salesforce, Visa, Brex, Wayfair, Duolingo, and Verizon.
Product overview
Oso is an AI Agent Security & Control Platform offering two primary product lines: Oso for Agents (for securing AI agents in production with simulation, detection, enforcement, and audit capabilities) and Oso for Apps (for traditional application authorization supporting RBAC, ReBAC, ABAC, and AnyBAC models). Both products are powered by Oso Cloud, the managed authorization-as-a-service platform, and Polar, Oso's declarative policy language. Oso Cloud provides centralized authorization with <10ms latency, 99.99% uptime across 30+ availability zones, and supports horizontal scaling to 1M+ requests/sec. The product portfolio also includes Oso Fallback Nodes for disaster recovery, the SQLAlchemy Integration for Python-based RAG applications, Authorization Academy for developer education, and the Rogue Agents Registry for tracking AI security threats.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Oso for Agents AI Agent Security & Control Platform providing visibility and controls to secure AI agents in production. Includes simulation testing, behavioral monitoring for prompts, tool calls and responses, automatic least-privilege enforcement, and comprehensive audit trails. Targeted at enterprise teams deploying AI agents.
- Oso Cloud Managed authorization-as-a-service platform that centralizes authorization logic and exposes REST APIs for answering authorization questions like 'can user X view resource Z?'. Scales to 1M+ requests/sec with sub-10ms p95 latency, runs in 30+ availability zones for 99.99% uptime, and supports SDKs in Node.js, Python, Go, Rust, Ruby, and Java.
- Polar Oso's declarative policy language (DSL) for expressing arbitrarily complex and granular application authorization logic. Supports RBAC, ReBAC, ABAC, fine-grained authorization, and organizational hierarchy patterns. Central to the Oso authorization-as-a-service platform.
- Oso for Apps Traditional application authorization platform supporting RBAC, ReBAC, ABAC, and AnyBAC authorization models. Enables developers to answer questions like 'can this user read that document?' and 'which objects can this agent manage?' Built on Oso Cloud and Polar.
- Oso Fallback Nodes Optional deployment option that runs the Oso Cloud API colocated inside a customer VPC. Contains a copy of rules and data so authorization checks can be served locally even if Oso Cloud is unreachable, with up to 30 minutes of lag behind edge nodes.
Quantifiable outcome
- 3.6 billion permissions processed across 2.4 million workers in industry research
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use Oso
Customer profileNamed customers15 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Oso technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration18 records
AI capability5 records
Feature6 records
Oso partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- CyeracoreJoint research partnership analyzing permission usage patterns across enterprise organizations. Research covered 3.6 billion permissions and 2.4 million workers to understand authorization implementation patterns and challenges.
Scale indicators11 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Oso competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Cerbos: Cerbos offers an open-core authorization decision service supporting RBAC, ABAC and ReBAC with a policy language — directly comparable to Oso's Polar + Oso Cloud stack and targeting the same developer persona.
- Permit.io: Permit.io provides authorization-as-a-service with policy-as-code, fine-grained permissions and multi-tenant access control — overlapping closely with Oso for Apps on product, customer base (developers/platform teams) and GTM.
- Styra (OPA): Styra commercializes Open Policy Agent (OPA), the leading open-source policy engine, with enterprise controls and cloud services. Oso and Styra both sell centralized policy + decision services to platform engineering teams.
- WorkOS: WorkOS sells enterprise authentication and authorization infrastructure (SSO, Directory, FGA) to B2B SaaS companies — the same developer/enterprise buyer as Oso. The WorkOS FGA sunset creates direct migration competition with Oso.
- Aserto: Aserto is an authorization-as-a-service platform built on Topaz (open-source) with a policy language for RBAC/ABAC/ReBAC, serving application teams that need fine-grained authorization — directly comparable to Oso's product.
Broad incumbents
- Auth0 (Okta): Auth0, now part of Okta, is a broad identity platform offering authentication, SSO and increasingly fine-grained authorization. Overlaps with Oso at the authorization decision layer for application developers and competes on enterprise distribution.
- AWS IAM (Identity and Access Management): AWS IAM is the dominant cloud identity and authorization service, bundled into the AWS ecosystem. While primarily infrastructure-focused, it overlaps with Oso for enterprise workloads running on AWS and represents bundled competition.
- Microsoft Entra ID: Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) is a broad identity and access platform deeply integrated with the Microsoft enterprise stack. Overlaps with Oso on enterprise SSO and increasingly on fine-grained authorization.
Emerging players
- Stytch: Stytch provides developer-first authentication and authorization APIs for B2B and B2C apps. Comparable to Oso on customer base and developer-led GTM, with partial overlap in fine-grained authorization.
- Clerk: Clerk offers drop-in authentication and user management for developers, with growing authorization capabilities. Competes with Oso for the same developer-led bottom-up adoption motion in startups and growth-stage SaaS.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Oso social profiles
Digital presenceOso compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance3 records
Oso financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Oso leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles7 records
Oso funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds4 records
Investors6 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Oso 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 Oso
What does Oso do?
Oso sells a managed authorization-as-a-service platform built around the Polar declarative policy language and the Oso Cloud runtime, enabling developers to implement RBAC, ReBAC, ABAC, and AnyBAC access control models via SDKs in Node.js, Python, Go, Rust, Ruby, and Java. The company also offers Oso for Agents, a security and control platform for AI agents with discover, monitor, detect, control, and report capabilities. Customers include Salesforce, Visa, Brex, Wayfair, Duolingo, and Verizon.
Is Oso a public or private company?
Oso is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Oso founded?
Oso was founded in 2019. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Oso based?
Oso is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.
How does Oso make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Authorization-as-a-Service Subscription is the primary driver. The others are usage-based Billing.
Who are Oso's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Cerbos, Permit.io, Styra (OPA), WorkOS and Aserto. Broad incumbents are Auth0 (Okta), AWS IAM (Identity and Access Management) and Microsoft Entra ID. Emerging players are Stytch and Clerk.
Does Oso have an API?
Yes. Oso Cloud is an authorization-as-a-service platform that exposes REST APIs for answering authorization questions. The API allows developers to define authorization policies in Polar (Oso's DSL), store policies and facts in Oso Cloud, and make API calls from applications to answer authorization questions like 'can user X view resource Z?' or 'what resources can user X edit?'. The platform supports centralized authorization data management, local authorization checks, and context facts. SDKs are available in Node.js, Python, Go, Rust, Ruby, and Java languages. The API includes endpoints for checking permissions, listing resources, managing facts, and deploying policies. Developer documentation is at www.osohq.com/docs.
What industry is Oso in?
Oso's product category is Authorization Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEAJAB, Single Sign-On (SSO) & Federation (SAML/OIDC, Identity Providers), with a secondary code of BPAEABAJ, Identity & Access Management (IAM) Administration Services. Its NAICS code is 5182 and its SIC code is 7372.