AuthZed Raises $12M Series A for SpiceDB Permissions Infrastructure

AuthZed, a New York-based developer tools startup founded in 2020, builds fine-grained authorization infrastructure for cloud applications. According to SecurityWeek, the company raised $12 million in Series A funding led by General Catalyst, with participation from Amplify Partners and Work-Bench, bringing its total capital raised to $15.8 million.

At the core of AuthZed's platform is SpiceDB, an open-source permissions database inspired by Google's Zanzibar architecture. Rather than relying on traditional role-based access control hardcoded into application microservices, SpiceDB centralizes authorization logic using relationship-based access control. The database models permissions as a graph of relationships between users and objects, allowing applications to validate security rules in real time at high request volumes.

Authorization for Distributed Systems and AI Scale

Traditional access control models struggle as permissions shift across teams, projects, and third-party integrations. For instance, OpenAI deployed SpiceDB to manage 37 billion documents with fine-grained permissions for ChatGPT connectors, performing authorization checks during retrieval workflows to prevent unauthorized data access.

AuthZed commercializes its core technology through AuthZed Dedicated, a managed enterprise service, and SpiceDB Enterprise for self-hosted deployments. The company's technology stack relies on open-source, cloud-native components including Go, TypeScript, Kubernetes, Kubernetes Operators, PostgreSQL, CockroachDB, Cloud Spanner, Prometheus, Thanos, and ArgoCD. Recent software updates include the SpiceDB Foreign Data Wrapper for PostgreSQL, which embeds real-time SpiceDB relationship context directly into database queries.

To expand the open-source platform, AuthZed is hiring a Senior Software Engineer ($150,000 to $190,000, Remote US). The role involves building SpiceDB and ecosystem tools at the intersection of distributed systems, databases, cloud infrastructure, and authorization.

CoreOS and Container Security Backgrounds

AuthZed was co-founded by CEO Jake Moshenko, CTO Joseph Schorr, and CPO Jimmy Zelinskie. Moshenko and Schorr previously co-founded Quay, the first private Docker container registry, which was acquired by CoreOS and later Red Hat. Zelinskie joined Quay after the CoreOS acquisition as a software engineer and product manager.

While running Quay, the founders frequently rewrote authorization logic to support complex customer organization structures. After Google published its Zanzibar paper detailing internal permissions architecture, Moshenko mapped those concepts to application access control, forming AuthZed to build a dedicated permissions database for external software teams.

Reliability, Security, and Advocacy Hiring

AuthZed operates as a fully remote company of 31 employees distributed across the US and Europe. The engineering team is currently expanding its platform reliability and infrastructure security coverage.

The team is hiring a Senior Site Reliability Engineer, Security ($150,000 to $195,000, Remote US/CA) to manage Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure for managed services while improving supply chain protection. Simultaneously, a Sr. Site Reliability Engineer ($150,000 to $195,000, Remote US) will maintain system availability, manage Docker and Kubernetes environments, and participate in an on-call rotation.

To support revenue and developer community growth, AuthZed is recruiting a Solutions Engineer - U.S. and Canada ($130,000 to $160,000, Remote US/CA) to conduct technical evaluations and sales demonstrations, traveling three to four days per month to customer sites. The company is also hiring a Sr. Developer Advocate (US-Based) ($140,000 to $170,000, Remote US) to produce technical content and engage communities on authorization strategies for agentic AI.

Open Roles at AuthZed

See all open roles at AuthZed