Edera, a Seattle-based startup, recently announced a $5 million seed round from venture capital firms and angel investors, including Kubernetes co-creator Joe Beda. The company was founded in April and aims to help companies secure their Kubernetes and AI workloads by taking a new approach to container security. Edera has developed two products: Protect Kubernetes, which secures workloads by isolating containers and eliminating container escapes, and Protect AI, which provides GPU configuration and security specifically for AI workloads.
Edera’s technology works by treating containers like virtual machine guests, eliminating shared kernel state between containers and using a memory-safe Rust control plane to further secure workloads. The platform can be used anywhere users run their containers, such as public cloud, private cloud, and on-premise environments, without requiring virtualization extensions or custom infrastructure. CEO Emily Long described Edera’s approach as “infrastructure meets cybersecurity,” highlighting how their technology fundamentally changes the way containers are run to enhance infrastructure security.
The company was co-founded by Emily Long, Ariadne Conill, and Alex Zenla, boasting a team of seven individuals. Long, a former COO at cybersecurity startup Chainguard, brings her expertise to Edera alongside Conil, who was a principal engineer at Chainguard as well. Zenla, a former engineer at DB Engineering Inc., has experience advising Google on IoT technologies. Long emphasized the rarity of having an all-female founding team in the industry and expressed pride in the unique composition of their startup. Despite currently working with design partners, Edera does not have paying customers yet.
645 Ventures and Eniac Ventures led the $5 million seed round for Edera, with participation from FPV Ventures, Generationship, Precursor Ventures, and Rosecliff Ventures. Kubernetes co-creator Joe Beda, who helped create Kubernetes and later sold Seattle startup Heptio to VMware, expressed the importance of stronger security protections as Kubernetes becomes more pervasive in various domains. Beda believes that Edera’s virtualization-based approach not only reduces risks but also ultimately lowers costs for companies using Kubernetes. The seed round also saw involvement from angel investors like Filippo Valsorda, Mandy Andress, Jeff Behl, and Nikitha Suryadevara.
As Edera continues to develop its technology and expand its client base, the startup is poised to make significant strides in enhancing security for Kubernetes and AI workloads. By addressing the need for stronger security protections in the ever-evolving landscape of container technologies, Edera’s unique approach has the potential to make a lasting impact on the industry. With a team of experienced founders and backing from reputable venture capital firms and angel investors, Edera is well-positioned to achieve success and establish itself as a key player in the cybersecurity and infrastructure sectors.
