Ottawa startup Augmentt lands $18 million to help safeguard cloud software for SMBs

Ottawa software startup Augmentt has closed $18 million CAD in Series A funding to help managed service providers (MSPs) protect their clients’ cybersecurity across online applications, the company announced earlier this week.

MSPs are third-party firms that provide information technology (IT) services and support to other companies and organizations on an ongoing basis. Augmentt’s platform, which is optimized for Microsoft, helps MSPs monitor and manage security and compliance across small and medium-sized businesses’ cloud-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications.

Camber was attracted to the Augmentt team’s “deep industry expertise” and its “history of exceptional execution.”

Partnering with MSPs can help companies save time and money recruiting in-house IT staff. According to MarketsandMarkets, global managed services is a large and growing market that is estimated to expand from $365 million USD in 2024 to more than $511 billion USD by 2029.

As those MSPs face rising labour costs, competition, regulation, and increased customer demand, Augmentt aims to provide them with the tools and automation to more efficiently audit, detect, and protect against SaaS-related security threats, Augmentt said.

Augmentt’s Series A round was led by New York growth equity firm Camber Partners. Augmentt plans to use this funding to speed up its product development, go-to-market, and partnership efforts.

“We look forward to leveraging Camber’s deep operating experience as we look to drive innovation for MSPs, accelerate customer success, and scale our global footprint,” Augmentt co-founder and CEO Derik Belair said in a statement.

Belair and Augmentt co-founder and chair Gavin Garbutt were formerly leaders at Ottawa-founded networking monitoring tech startup N-able. N-able was acquired in 2013 by United States-based SolarWinds for $120 million USD and then spun off in 2021 to focus exclusively on the MSP market. 

The pair, who have decades of combined experience selling software to MSPs, teamed up to launch Augmentt in 2020.

In a statement, Camber vice-president Duncan McGillivary indicated that the investment firm was attracted to the Augmentt team’s “deep industry expertise” and its “history of exceptional execution.”

In a statement, Garbutt argued that Augmentt’s mission is to help MSPs “deliver world-class security services at scale” at a time when many are “being asked to do more with less.”

Helping organizations mitigate cybersecurity risks associated with SaaS sprawl is something that Toronto-based tech peer 1Password, which recently surpassed $400 million USD in annual recurring revenue, has lately been focused on. 

feature mage courtesy Unsplash. Photo Tim van der Kuipby.