Shujinko announced today that it has raised $2.8 million to automate the construction and auditing of cloud environments, dramatically reducing the cost of building and maintaining compliance in the public cloud. Unusual Ventures, Defy, Vulcan Capital, PSL Ventures and Vas Ventures led the financing. Sujal Patel, the founder of Isilon Systems, and Andrew Peterson and Zane Lackey, the co-founders of web application security leader Signal Sciences, also participated in the round. Shujinko represents the seventh publicly announced spinout of Seattle-based startup studio Pioneer Square Labs.

Shujinko's software-as-a-service offering provides technology-enabled businesses with effective tools to automate the construction of secure cloud environments. Enterprises are quickly migrating to the cloud, but the number of data breaches is increasing, resulting in brand damage and fines. Shujinko delivers a proactive approach to security and compliance using security-by-design to construct cloud environments.

"The current method in which IT audits are performed is antiquated and painful," said Scott Schwan, co-founder, and CEO. "Businesses want to go fast and innovate quickly. We are here to help remove the compliance roadblocks they encounter along the way."

The two founders, Schwan, and CTO Matt Wells have worked together for 10 years, across multiple organizations, from large Fortune 500 enterprises to young startups. Together, they have a proven track record of delivering on large scalable platforms that have processed hundreds of millions of transactions.

"Shujinko offers a forward-looking approach to security and compliance in the cloud, enabling their customers to increase the speed of innovation and delivery of business capabilities," said Neil Sequeira, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Defy. "Shujinko's founders Scott and Matt are a talented team with extensive experience solving complex problems for leading companies and we are excited to partner with them as they grow and scale this company."

"With the regulations and compliance demands on corporations today, the market needs Shujinko," said John Vrionis, General Partner at Unusual Ventures. "I'm very excited to partner with these two founders who for years have lived the massive pain of building and maintaining compliance for large retailers, and who now live to solve it."

"We are building something complex and solving important problems that no one has yet addressed in the security space," said Wells. "We are looking for folks that want to join us on this journey."