Latest news with #IrinaDenisenko
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Knox lands $6.5M to compete with Palantir in the federal compliance market
While highly sought after, federal software contracts frequently come with a hidden cost: Achieving government SaaS security compliance, known as FedRAMP, can take years and require substantial resources. Achieving this certification typically takes up to three years and costs more than $3 million, covering everything from security operations engineer salaries to security audits, according to Irina Denisenko, CEO of Knox. Denisenko (pictured above, second from right) launched Knox, a federal managed cloud provider, last year with a mission to help software vendors speed through this security authorization process in just three months, and at a fraction of what it would cost to do it on their own. On Thursday, Knox said it has raised a $6.5 million seed round led by Felicis, with participation from Ridgeline and FirsthandVC. Denisenko decided to embark on this journey after she learned first-hand the challenges of obtaining FedRAMP. Class, an education startup where she served as COO, had secured a contract to sell its software to the U.S. Air Force. And instead of waiting three years and spending millions, Denisenko helped buy CoSo Cloud, a company that was already FedRAMP certified and was managing Adobe's federal cloud. The acquisition helped Class receive FedRAMP certification in just six months. 'Class would still be getting FedRAMP today' if it had tried to obtain the clearance on its own, Denisenko told TechCrunch. And late last year, when it became clear that the proliferation of AI agents was becoming a national security concern, Denisenko decided to spin out the managed cloud solution into a standalone startup, Knox. Companies that can afford FedRAMP certificaiton include large software vendors like CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, and Salesforce, Denisenko told TechCrunch. And as the government increasingly adopts more software, she hopes Knox can help SaaS vendors gain FedRAMP to access government contracts more easily. Knox, named after a giant gold storage fort in Kentucky, essentially provides a compliance management platform via a managed cloud that customers can connect their codebase to. The company's software runs a continuous series of tests and audits to identify where the customer's infrastructure, code and security controls are falling short of FedRAMP standards, and either remediates those issues itself or flags them to the customer. It also offers some non-software tools to track and verify policies like personnel training and vendor management. 'This stuff is legitimately very hard and very risky,' she said. 'We will bear the risk.' Knox is already handling security and compliance for Adobe, Class, Spacelift, and an LLM provider. 'We'll end the year with well north of a dozen customers live in the cloud,' Denisenko said. While FedRAMP authorization management may seem like a niche offering, Knox has one large competitor: Palantir. Palantir's offering, called FedStart, was introduced only two years ago, and since then, the giant data analysis platform has brought on the likes of Anthropic and Windsurf as clients. For Denisenko, Palantir's early success with FedRAMP only validates Knox's mission. 'Even anthropic couldn't figure this out on their own,' she said, adding that going forward, software companies will want to outsource their FedRAMP compliance to a company like Knox. Sign in to access your portfolio
TechCrunch
10-07-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Knox lands $6.5M to compete with Palantir in the federal compliance market
While highly sought after, federal software contracts frequently come with a hidden cost: Achieving government SaaS security compliance, known as FedRAMP, can take years and require substantial resources. Achieving this certification typically takes up to three years and costs more than $3 million, covering everything from security operations engineer salaries to security audits, according to Irina Denisenko, CEO of Knox. Denisenko (pictured above, second from left) launched Knox, a federal managed cloud provider, last year with a mission to help software vendors speed through this security authorization process in just three months, and at a fraction of what it would cost to do it on their own. On Thursday, Knox said it has raised a $6.5 million seed round led by Felicis, with participation from Ridgeline and FirsthandVC. Denisenko decided to embark on this journey after she learned first-hand the challenges of obtaining FedRAMP. Class, an education startup where she served as COO, had secured a contract to sell its software to the U.S. Air Force. And instead of waiting three years and spending millions, Denisenko helped buy CoSo Cloud, a company that was already FedRAMP certified and was managing Adobe's federal cloud. The acquisition helped Class receive FedRAMP certification in just six months. 'Class would still be getting FedRAMP today' if it had tried to obtain the clearance on its own, Denisenko told TechCrunch. And late last year, when it became clear that the proliferation of AI agents was becoming a national security concern, Denisenko decided to spin out the managed cloud solution into a standalone startup, Knox. Techcrunch event Save up to $475 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $450 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW Companies that can afford FedRAMP certificaiton include large software vendors like CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, and Salesforce, Denisenko told TechCrunch. And as the government increasingly adopts more software, she hopes Knox can help SaaS vendors gain FedRAMP to access government contracts more easily. Knox, named after a giant gold storage fort in Kentucky, monitors applications for all software updates, and tries to remedy issues if any changes are out of compliance. 'This stuff is legitimately very hard and very risky,' she said. 'We will bear the risk.' Knox is already handling security and compliance for Adobe, Class, Spacelift, and an LLM provider. 'We'll end the year with well north of a dozen customers live in the cloud,' Denisenko said. While FedRAMP authorization management may seem like a niche offering, Knox has one large competitor: Palantir. Palantir's offering, called FedStart, was introduced only two years ago, and since then, the giant data analysis platform has brought on the likes of Anthropic and Windsurf as clients. For Denisenko, Palantir's early success with FedRAMP only validates Knox's mission. 'Even anthropic couldn't figure this out on their own,' she said, adding that going forward, software companies will want to outsource their FedRAMP compliance to a company like Knox.
Business Wire
03-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Knox and Minimus Partner to Streamline Secure Software Delivery for the U.S. Government
NEW YORK & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Knox Systems and Minimus are proud to announce a strategic partnership aimed at accelerating secure software deployment across the U.S. Government. This collaboration brings together Knox's FedRAMP-ready cloud platform—trusted by leading SaaS vendors—with Minimus's secure, minimal, and high-performance microservices infrastructure. Together, the two companies empower software providers to deploy modular, secure, and efficient applications that meet stringent federal compliance standards. As government agencies rapidly adopt cloud-native architectures and AI-enabled tools, this partnership provides a streamlined path to deliver secure, scalable software to mission-critical environments. 'Minimus is rethinking infrastructure for modern workloads, and their microservices backbone is ideal for FedRAMP environments,' said Irina Denisenko, CEO of Knox Systems. 'This partnership will unlock a new class of composable, compliant applications for our government customers—and help developers go from prototype to production in record time.' 'At Minimus, we believe the best infrastructure is invisible—fast, secure, and purpose-built,' said Ben Bernstein, CEO of Minimus. 'Knox has fundamentally changed the speed and accessibility of FedRAMP. Together, we're eliminating friction for security, development, and operations teams to help the best software reach the public sector.' With this partnership, SaaS companies and systems integrators can now: Achieve FedRAMP authorization in as little as 90 days through Knox's hosted platform Deploy modular microservices with Minimus's secure, minimal container images Accelerate innovation in government while reducing operational and compliance overhead Together, Knox and Minimus are redefining what's possible in secure cloud delivery for defense, intelligence, and civilian agencies. Learn more at and About Knox Systems Knox is the fastest way for SaaS vendors to get FedRAMP-ready and deliver secure software to the U.S. Government. Knox operates the largest and longest-running FedRAMP and DISA-authorized SaaS cloud and helps top vendors serve government missions at speed. Learn more at About Minimus Minimus solves the endless treadmill of cloud software vulnerabilities by simply preventing them from existing. Minimus provides secure, minimal container and VM images, rebuilt from scratch daily to eliminate over 95% of CVEs. Founded by the team behind container security pioneer Twistlock, Minimus has raised a $51 million seed round from YL Ventures and Mayfield. The company is headquartered in Baton Rouge with offices in New York, Tel Aviv, and Portland, OR. Visit to get started.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Knox and Minimus Partner to Streamline Secure Software Delivery for the U.S. Government
NEW YORK & SAN FRANCISCO, June 03, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Knox Systems and Minimus are proud to announce a strategic partnership aimed at accelerating secure software deployment across the U.S. Government. This collaboration brings together Knox's FedRAMP-ready cloud platform—trusted by leading SaaS vendors—with Minimus's secure, minimal, and high-performance microservices infrastructure. Together, the two companies empower software providers to deploy modular, secure, and efficient applications that meet stringent federal compliance standards. As government agencies rapidly adopt cloud-native architectures and AI-enabled tools, this partnership provides a streamlined path to deliver secure, scalable software to mission-critical environments. "Minimus is rethinking infrastructure for modern workloads, and their microservices backbone is ideal for FedRAMP environments," said Irina Denisenko, CEO of Knox Systems. "This partnership will unlock a new class of composable, compliant applications for our government customers—and help developers go from prototype to production in record time." "At Minimus, we believe the best infrastructure is invisible—fast, secure, and purpose-built," said Ben Bernstein, CEO of Minimus. "Knox has fundamentally changed the speed and accessibility of FedRAMP. Together, we're eliminating friction for security, development, and operations teams to help the best software reach the public sector." With this partnership, SaaS companies and systems integrators can now: Achieve FedRAMP authorization in as little as 90 days through Knox's hosted platform Deploy modular microservices with Minimus's secure, minimal container images Accelerate innovation in government while reducing operational and compliance overhead Together, Knox and Minimus are redefining what's possible in secure cloud delivery for defense, intelligence, and civilian agencies. Learn more at and About Knox Systems Knox is the fastest way for SaaS vendors to get FedRAMP-ready and deliver secure software to the U.S. Government. Knox operates the largest and longest-running FedRAMP and DISA-authorized SaaS cloud and helps top vendors serve government missions at speed. Learn more at About Minimus Minimus solves the endless treadmill of cloud software vulnerabilities by simply preventing them from existing. Minimus provides secure, minimal container and VM images, rebuilt from scratch daily to eliminate over 95% of CVEs. Founded by the team behind container security pioneer Twistlock, Minimus has raised a $51 million seed round from YL Ventures and Mayfield. The company is headquartered in Baton Rouge with offices in New York, Tel Aviv, and Portland, OR. Visit to get started. View source version on Contacts Melanie MoorePRforKnox@ Sign in to access your portfolio
Associated Press
22-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Knox Systems Backs DoD's SWFT Push to Fast-Track Secure Software
WASHINGTON and NEW YORK, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Knox Systems, the company behind the largest and longest-running FedRAMP and DISA-authorized SaaS cloud in the federal market, is proud to support the Department of Defense's Software Fast Track (SWFT) initiative—an effort to transform how software is assessed, authorized, and deployed across defense missions. As one of the first participants, Knox submitted responses to all three SWFT RFIs—Tools, External Assessment Methodologies, and Automation & AI —outlining how its AI-native platform, KnoxAI, delivers real-time, mission-aware risk assessments and automates compliance at scale. KnoxAI is already operational and supports secure cloud environments for agencies including the U.S. Marine Corps, DCSA, and NRO, helping deliver faster, more rigorous paths to Authorization to Operate (ATO). It ingests SBOMs and telemetry, contextualizes vulnerabilities, and autogenerates POA&Ms and NIST-800 documentation—all at scale, with thousands of scans run. 'The future of ATO is autonomous, continuous, and contextual,' said Irina Denisenko, CEO of Knox Systems. 'SWFT is a turning point for how we manage software risk in government. We're proud to contribute our experience and technology to help accelerate secure software to the mission edge.' The launch of SWFT follows growing recognition that traditional authorization processes are too slow and brittle for today's software-driven landscape. At AFCEA and in recent public remarks, DoD CISO Katie Arrington emphasized that the goal of SWFT is to 'remove the unnecessary bureaucracy and create a more streamlined, efficient way to do cybersecurity,' enabling faster, safer deployment of commercial technology. Knox's contributions to SWFT reflect a decade-long track record of enabling secure government software—from powering Adobe's federal cloud to pioneering AI-native risk assessment for the DoD. For media inquiries: [email protected] View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Knox Systems, Inc
