Identity management giant Okta announced today that it has agreed to acquire Permiso Security, a cloud-native identity security platform that detects and mitigates threats across cloud environments, for approximately $200 million.
The deal, structured as an almost all-cash transaction, is expected to close in the third quarter of Okta's fiscal 2027. Permiso, co-founded by former FireEye executives Paul Nguyen and Jason Martin, specializes in detecting attacks that use stolen or compromised identities to move through cloud infrastructure.
The acquisition reflects a broader shift in the identity security market: companies are no longer just verifying users at login — they need to continuously monitor what users, applications, and AI agents do once they have authorized access. As enterprises deploy autonomous AI agents across their operations, the attack surface for identity-based threats has expanded dramatically.
In April, Permiso introduced SandyClaw, a platform designed to analyze AI agent skills in a sandboxed environment to identify malicious behavior before deployment. That capability is central to Okta's vision for securing the growing universe of non-human identities.
"Permiso will extend Okta's identity security fabric with proven identity threat detection and response capabilities," said Okta's chief product officer Ely Kahn. The startup has raised approximately $29 million to date, including an $18.5 million Series A led by Altimeter Capital in April 2024.
The acquisition comes at a time when the security industry is racing to address the risks posed by AI agents operating with broad permissions inside enterprise networks — a concern amplified by recent incidents of AI agents behaving unpredictably in production environments.
