Britive Inc., a cloud computing cybersecurity company based in Glendale, has raised $5.4 million in late seed stage funding. 

Silicon Beach heavyweight Upfront Ventures led the round, which includes capital previously raised by Britive in angel and early seed stage activity.

Britive’s technology is designed for companies using software-as-a-service platforms such as Workday or Salesforce. Its product centers on access management, or controlling who is able to view and make use of sensitive areas or functions in a company’s cloud-based systems. 

Britive differentiates itself, according to co-founder and Chief Executive Art Poghosyan, through its focus on what it calls “dynamic permissioning.”

“We pattern the behavior of the user,” Poghosyan said. This understanding of typical activity, such as the steps usually taken to onboard a new employee, allows Britive’s platform to flag unusual behavior which may be the sign of a malicious actor, according to the co-founder.

Poghosyan said that the platform’s intelligence enables relatively unobtrusive security measures to be put in place, since security verifications are often only needed when undertaking uncommon processes or actions.

“The system has the intelligence to detect the transition from regular to privileged activity,” Poghosyan said. “(That allows it) to orchestrate that dynamic permissioning and provide access for limited-time use.”

Britive is among several local cloud-security companies which have raised capital since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Among these was Marina del Rey-based Open Raven, a cloud security startup focused on protecting data. Open Raven co-founder and Chief Executive Dave Cole also participated in Britive’s latest raise.

Although both companies focus on cybersecurity for cloud-based applications, Poghosyan said their services are complementary rather than competitive.

“They control the data itself; we control access to the data,” Poghosyan said.

Britive’s new funding will be used to hire engineers to improve the company’s core product, Poghosyan said, as well as marketing and sales staff to grow its client base. 

Over the next 12 months, the co-founder is looking to expand both the number and type of users on his company’s platform, adding new industries as its technology “learns” sector-specific user behaviors.