With collaboration app for security teams, Balance Theory raises $3 million 

Collaboration apps are a staple of the remote working era, but they’re also open to compromise. It only takes one hacker to gain access to an employee’s login credentials to access workspaces full of confidential information and materials. 

That’s why cybersecurity collaborative workspace provider Balance Theory, which today announced it has raised $3 million as part of a seed funding round led by DataTribe, has developed a collaboration tool for security teams. 

Balance Theory’s solution provides users with a secure, encrypted platform to manage security workflows, processes, technical documentation and playbooks, in a single location with classification and redaction capabilities. It also integrates with existing collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams. 

It’s an approach that enables board members, auditors, new hires and vendors to get a top-down perspective of the security team’s protections. 

The need for secure collaborative workspaces 

The announcement comes as collaboration apps have increased risk for enterprises substantially. 

One of the most notable examples of this occurred just a few months ago, when hackers breached Rockstar Games’ internal Slack channel, exfiltrated content, assets and source code from Grand Theft Auto VI, and released over 90 videos and images on GTAForums. 

Collaboration apps are a prime target for cybercriminals because they know that these solutions contain a mountain of protected data and intellectual property that’s being discussed among employees. If an intruder successfully hacks a collaboration app, they have access to a central repository of high-value information. 

However, Balance Theory isn’t just providing a protected collaboration environment, it’s also offering a place where security teams can optimize their processes without reliance on inefficient legacy solutions like spreadsheets. 

“When asked the question: tell me the story of your cybersecurity program … most today respond with PowerPoints and Spreadsheets populated on the back of siloed, dispersed, and hard-to-assemble information,” said Greg Baker, CEO of Balance Theory. 

“Balance Theory provides the space to solve the building, management and communication of all aspects of an enterprise cybersecurity team in one integrated secure and trusted platform,” said Baker. 

Users can communicate through a live chat function using features like redaction to remove sensitive information, while security teams can implement public sharing controls and permissions management to determine who can access shared materials.

According to Baker, Balance Theory’s main competitors are legacy solutions for creating and managing cybersecurity programs. However, there are also a number of secure collaboration tools emerging for enterprises. 

One vendor focusing on securing enterprise communications is Element, which offers a secure, end-to-end encrypted collaboration platform that’s also designed for security teams. Element’s solution provides single sign-on (SSO) and data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities to reduce the risk of data leaks. Last year, Element raised $30 million in funding.

Other vendors, like Safeguard Cyber, are taking a different approach to collaboration security by offering a platform that offers visibility into communication channels like Microsoft Teams and Slack.

Safeguard Cyber’s solution enables security teams to detect social engineering attempts and malicious links across the collaboration apps they rely on every day. Safeguard Cyber most recently announced raising $45 million in funding in 2021. 

Baker argues that Balance Theory’s range of security measures differentiate it from competitors. “We are built securely with features such as encryption, redaction, classification and provenance to provide the most secure collaborative workspace on the market.”