CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Material Security vs Valence

Material Security is the company behind Material, an automated cloud workspace security platform for lean security teams that need to protect the email, files, and accounts that live in Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Valence sells a platform that discovers and protects human, non-human, and AI agent identities across endpoint, cloud, and SaaS. CISO Tribune files both under SaaS security posture and Identity threat detection and response. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • Material Security
  • Valence
Material Security vs Valence: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
Material SecurityMaterial Security is the company behind Material, an automated cloud workspace security platform for lean security teams that need to protect the email, files, and accounts that live in Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.material.securityValenceValence sells a platform that discovers and protects human, non-human, and AI agent identities across endpoint, cloud, and SaaS.valencesecurity.com
What it sells
  • Email Security[2][3][5][8]Remediates email attacks that bypass traditional controls in Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
  • File Security[2][6][8][13]Finds sensitive data in files and remediates excessive permissions and sharing.
  • Account Security[2][7][8]Detects account takeovers, contains their impact and hardens accounts.
  • OAuth Remediation Agent[8]Watches third-party clients and AI agents across Google Workspace.
  • Drive Agent[9][10]Investigates and remediates over-shared sensitive documents in Google Drive.
  • SaaS Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)Monitors identity activity across SaaS to detect threats.
Categories
Headquarters
Redwood City, United States[1]Not stated on its pages
Founded
2017[1][13]Not stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: listed, seen November 4, 2026[12]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 4, 2026[4]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
Not written yetFrom its own pages, Valence sells mainly to security teams that need to discover, protect, and detect and respond to threats across their SaaS and AI ecosystem. Valence also addresses SaaS admins, who work with security teams on a unified view of SaaS and AI risks. Valence works with business users to understand and address risks they configured. Valence offers a route for organizations that want to develop integrations for proprietary or highly specialized SaaS apps. Valence says its platform helps find and fix risks across mission-critical SaaS applications.
Last verified
September 27, 2026November 2, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Material Security and Valence are both filed under SaaS security posture and Identity threat detection and response.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Material Security's primary category is Email security; Valence's is SaaS security posture.
  • Material Security is also filed under Data security posture management. Valence is also filed under Non-human identity security.
  • Material Security lists Email Security, File Security, Account Security, OAuth Remediation Agent and Drive Agent. Valence lists SaaS Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR).
  • Material Security is headquartered in Redwood City, United States.
  • Material Security was founded in 2017.

What it sells: Material Security

What Email Security does[2][3][5][8]
Material runs on auto-pilot to remediate sophisticated email attacks that bypass traditional controls. It automates user report triage with AI-powered investigation and response workflows. It connects through native APIs rather than acting as a gateway.
What File Security does[2][6][8][13]
Material detects sensitive content in files and includes tools to automatically remediate excessive permissions and inappropriate sharing. It discovers and classifies sensitive data across Google Drive and maps it to every sharing permission.
What OAuth Remediation Agent does[8]
The agent classifies risk in real time and revokes access tokens the moment behavior turns suspicious. It can message the user in Slack to confirm whether an authorization was legitimate.

What it sells: Valence

What SaaS Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) does
Valence delivers identity threat detection and response across a SaaS ecosystem. Valence monitors activity across users, service accounts, tokens, and integrations to identify suspicious access patterns, privilege abuse, and signs of compromise. Valence correlates events across applications to uncover threats that are difficult to detect in isolation.

Questions about Material Security and Valence

What do Material Security and Valence sell?
Material Security sells Email Security, File Security, Account Security, OAuth Remediation Agent and Drive Agent. Valence sells SaaS Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR).
Are Material Security and Valence in the same category?
They share SaaS security posture and Identity threat detection and response. Material Security's primary category is Email security and Valence's is SaaS security posture.
Where are Material Security and Valence headquartered?
Material Security is headquartered in Redwood City, United States.
When were Material Security and Valence founded?
Material Security was founded in 2017.
Who are Material Security and Valence sold to?
From its own pages, Valence sells mainly to security teams that need to discover, protect, and detect and respond to threats across their SaaS and AI ecosystem.

About Material Security

Material Security is the company behind Material, an automated cloud workspace security platform for lean security teams that need to protect the email, files, and accounts that live in Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Material Security says it secures the productivity suite by stopping attacks and reducing risk across Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace with unified cloud email and file security, data loss prevention and posture management.[2][3][5][7]

Material Security says point solutions and home-grown detections create gaps and drain efficiency. Material replaces that patchwork with a single platform that combines threat detection and response across email, files, and accounts. The company describes modern attacks as deliberately spanning email, identities, data, and connected apps.[3][7][9]

On email, Material remediates sophisticated email attacks that bypass traditional controls. Material automates user report triage with AI-powered investigation and response workflows. Material says it stops VIP impersonations, BEC attacks, and sophisticated phishing that slips past native defenses, including vendor email compromise, invoice fraud, quishing, and ransomware. Material says teams using its automated user report response have cut phishing triage by up to 91 percent at companies like Gusto.[3][5]

On files and accounts, Material detects sensitive content in files and includes tools to automatically remediate excessive permissions and inappropriate sharing. Material detects account takeovers, contains their impact, and hardens accounts. Material monitors signals across the cloud office, from forwarding rules and mailbox rule changes to brute force logins and credential stuffing.[3][7]

Material sells two agents for specific workspace risks. For business-critical clients, customers can require analyst approval before revocation happens. Material's Drive Agent finds and investigates PHI, PII, and sensitive documents shared too broadly in Drive. When over-sharing is identified, the Drive Agent enforces policy and remediates in bulk.[8][9]

On deployment, Material connects to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace in minutes via native APIs, with no network changes and zero downtime. Material lets customers implement protections for just the users or teams that need them, and syncs groups from Active Directory, Google, or IdPs for targeted deployments and staged rollouts. No agents, plug-ins, or other end-user installs are required. Material can be operated by Material while the customer's team has full access to and ownership of the underlying infrastructure. Material links with SIEM or SOAR platforms to bring cloud workspace visibility and protection under the broader security ecosystem.[3]

On security assurance, Material states it has received a SOC 2 Type II Report through an independent third-party auditor. Material undergoes regular external pentests and runs a private bug bounty program through HackerOne. Material keeps immutable audit logs of all admin activity and application events, and access to the Material admin console can be gated through Single Sign-On.

On pricing, Essentials starts at $4 per user/month, billed annually. Advanced is $6 per user/month, billed annually. ATO Resilience can be added to either plan for an additional $3 per user/month, or bought as a standalone license for $5 per user/month.[14]

Ryan co-founded Material in 2017 and has served as Chairman since 2023. Abhishek co-founded Material in 2017. Chris has been VP of Engineering at Material Security since 2017 and co-founded the company. Material Security says it has raised venture capital from Martin Casado at Andreessen Horowitz, Elad Gil, and Trae Stephens at Founders Fund.[2][3][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][14]

Material Security on the record

Sources

Material Security full record

  1. [1]Material Security Raises $40 Million Series B To Protect the Worlds Email From the Next SolarWinds AttackMaterial Security via Business Wire · businesswire.com · published May 26, 2021 · Tier A
  2. [2]ProductMaterial Security · material.security · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Cloud Workspace Security Platform | Material SecurityMaterial Security · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Deployment and Security | Material SecurityMaterial Security · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Email Security Solutions for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 | MaterialMaterial Security · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]File Security for Google Drive and Gmail | MaterialMaterial Security · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Account Takeover Prevention & Detection | Material SecurityMaterial Security · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]OAuth Security That Stops Malicious Apps | Material SecurityMaterial Security · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Material Security | Security for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365Material Security · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Google Drive Security for the Agentic AI Era | MaterialMaterial Security · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Helping Secure Our Customers | Material SecurityMaterial Security · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Material Security Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier C
  13. [13]About Us and Leadership | Material SecurityMaterial Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Our Pricing Packages | Material SecurityMaterial Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A

Valence full record

  1. [1]valencesecurity.comValence · valencesecurity.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Israeli cybersecurity startup valence launches out of stealth with 7m in fundingValence · valencesecurity.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]SaaS Application Security Platform | ValenceValence · undated page, accessed October 29, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Valence Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & FeaturesG2 · undated page, accessed October 29, 2026 · Tier C
  5. [5]The Leader in SaaS and AI Security, Built for the Agentic Era | ValenceValence Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Comprehensive Microsoft 365 Security and Risk RemediationValence Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]SaaS Security Posture Management | ValenceValence Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]AI Security Posture Management (AI-SPM)Valence Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) | ValenceValence Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Valence Connector Studio | Extend SaaS Security to Any ApplicationValence Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Remediate Your Slack Security Risks | ValenceValence Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]GitHub Security: Manage Risks with ValenceValence Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Google Workspace Security | Protect Your SaaS EnvironmentValence Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Salesforce Security | Protect Your SaaS EnvironmentValence Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A

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