Oak Emerges from Stealth with $60M to Tackle AI Identity Crisis

TL;DR

• Oak is an Israeli identity management startup co-founded by Shai Morag, emerging from stealth with $60 million in seed funding.
• The company aims to solve the AI identity crisis by managing the growing complexities of non-human identities (AI agents) that traditional systems cannot secure.
• Oak’s platform focuses on discovering, resolving, and automating identity workflows specifically designed for the AI agent era, addressing a critical gap in current cybersecurity.

The AI Identity Gap: Why Oak Is Rising

The cybersecurity world is facing a new frontier: AI agents are now acting as digital employees, accessing data, executing transactions, and interacting with networks. Unlike human users, these non-human identities lack traditional oversight, creating a "wild west" of security vulnerabilities. Enter Oak, an Israeli startup that has officially emerged from stealth to tackle this exact problem, backed by a massive $60 million seed round.

Co-founded by Shai Morag, Oak is positioning itself as the definitive solution for AI identity management, distinguishing itself from previous players in the non-human identity space that focused on static machines rather than dynamic AI agents.

A $60M Seed to Secure the AI Era

The scale of Oak’s funding is unprecedented for a seed round in the identity sector. The $60 million valuation signals intense investor confidence that AI identity management will become a critical infrastructure layer in the coming years.

While many startups emerged recently to address non-human identity, Oak’s funding size suggests a more aggressive approach to the specific challenges posed by AI agents. Unlike traditional bots or service accounts, AI agents are autonomous, capable of making decisions, and prone to "hallucinating" access requests that bypass standard security protocols. Oak’s capital allows it to build a robust platform capable of handling these dynamic, unpredictable identities at scale.

Shai Morag and the Israeli Tech Pedigree

Shai Morag, Oak’s co-founder, brings deep expertise in the Israeli cybersecurity ecosystem. Israel has long been a global hub for identity security, with companies like Secret Double Octopus, Semperis, and Authomize leading the charge in human and machine identity management.

Oak is not the first Israeli startup to target non-human identities. In January 2024, Oasis Security emerged from stealth with $40 million to manage non-human identities for static machines and software agents. However, Oak’s specific focus on AI agents represents a critical evolution. While Oasis built a "discover, resolve, automate" system for machines, Oak is adapting this framework for the autonomous, decision-making nature of AI, which requires a more sophisticated identity layer.

The Core Problem: AI Agents Are Unmanaged Identities

The complexity Oak addresses stems from the rapid proliferation of AI agents in enterprise environments. These agents are not just tools; they are active participants in business workflows. They access databases, trigger payments, and interact with external APIs.

Current identity management systems (IAM) are designed for humans or static machines. They rely on predefined roles and permissions. AI agents, however, often operate with dynamic permissions that change based on context, making them invisible to traditional security maps. This creates a massive risk: an AI agent could be granted excessive access, or a compromised agent could act as a gateway for attackers without triggering alarms.

Oak’s mission is to create a visualized map of all AI identities, track their data movements, and automate remediation when anomalies occur—similar to the approach taken by Oasis but tailored for the AI agent economy.

How Oak Plans to Fix the Crisis

Oak’s platform is built on a three-part system designed to bring order to the chaos of AI identities:

1. Discover: The system builds a comprehensive picture of the network, identifying every AI agent and tracking where it interfaces with other systems. This creates a "giant recreation" of all non-human identity interactions.

2. Resolve: Using this map, Oak tracks data movement and identifies anomalies. If an AI agent behaves unusually—such as accessing data it shouldn’t—the system provides remediation suggestions.

3. Automate: The final step is proactive, continuous work. Oak automatically refreshes the identity map and observes AI behavior in real time, allowing for automatic remediation or human triage of security incidents.

This approach mirrors the "discover, resolve, automate" framework pioneered by Oasis Security, but Oak’s specific differentiation is its focus on the autonomous, learning nature of AI agents, which require a more fluid and adaptive identity management strategy.

The Future of Identity Management

With $60 million in seed funding, Oak is not just entering the market; it is aiming to define it. The startup’s emergence from stealth marks a pivotal moment for cybersecurity, acknowledging that AI agents are now a primary vector for identity-based attacks.

As enterprises continue to deploy AI agents for customer service, data analysis, and operational automation, the need for a dedicated AI identity management layer will become non-negotiable. Oak’s mission to address the AI identity crisis positions it as a critical player in the next generation of security infrastructure, ensuring that the "wild west" of non-human identities is brought under control.

AndroGuider Team

Articles written by the AndroGuider team. We try to make them thorough and informational while being easy to read.