SaaS firm Nirmata raises $9.6 million from Peak XV’s Surge, others

Software solutions provider Nirmata has raised $9.6 million in a funding round led by Peak XV’s Surge.

The round also witnessed participation from Dallas Venture Capital, Dreamit, Z5 Capital and Uncorrelated Ventures.

The San Jose-based company plans to use the new funds to expand its India operations, scale its go-to-market strategy, and accelerate product development focused on security automation, governance, and compliance for applications and IT infrastructure from code to cloud.


Founded in 2013 by Jim Bugwadia, Ritesh Patel, and Damien Toledo, Nirmata specialises in Kubernetes policy and governance solutions. Its flagship product, Kyverno, is an open-source policy engine designed to manage and automate Kubernetes configurations, ensuring security and compliance within cloud-native applications.

Kubernetes is an open-source platform that helps companies manage and run applications across multiple computers (servers) automatically.

“We work with a lot of global companies headquartered worldwide, but their platform engineering and DevOps teams are predominantly in India. That’s why we want to invest further in the region,” Bugwadia, CEO of Nirmata, told ET.

The company currently has a 35-40-member team globally, with nearly half based in India. It now plans to double its workforce to 80 employees, expanding across sales, marketing, and customer support.

Beyond Kyverno, the company also offers the Nirmata Control Hub (NCH), a unified platform that enforces security policies, automates compliance, and remediates critical issues, helping organisations streamline operations and boost productivity.

Nirmata claims Kyverno has surpassed 3.2 billion downloads, as businesses increasingly adopt cloud-native technologies.

Its Indian customers include fintech firm Razorpay and gaming startup Games24x7.

The company aims to scale to 60-100 global customers in the next 12-18 months, targeting $10-15 million in revenue.

Further, Bugwadia noted that the surge in AI-driven applications is accelerating cloud adoption, prompting businesses to build platform engineering teams. He added that AI-generated code is transforming software development by automating tasks and generating complex code at an unprecedented scale.

In August 2021, Nirmata raised $4 million in a funding round led by Z5 Capital, with participation from Uncorrelated Ventures, Samsung Next, Benhamou Global Ventures, and angel investors.

“The security of our software is at a pivotal moment as the increasing complexity of cloud-native environments is overwhelming security and platform teams, leading to burnout and stifled innovation. By automating security in delivery pipelines, organisations can maintain governance at speeds that prevent breaches before they even happen,” said Saqib Syed, a board member of Nirmata.