VMware today said it will acquire API security startup Mesh7. The deal bolsters VMware’s growing security portfolio and also reflects the increasing importance of securing microservices and cloud-native applications.

VMware and Mesh7 did not disclose the transaction details.

Mesh7 provides cloud-native application security and observability software that detects and mitigates threats. It collects and correlates contextual data from APIs, host processes, user identities, public cloud data-event logs, and threat intelligence, and then continually monitors applications for any API vulnerabilities and behavioral changes that could indicate a breach.

It’s built on Envoy, an open source service mesh substrate — and this is particularly important to VMware because Envoy is a foundational component of its Tanzu Service Mesh, which provides connectivity and security for microservices across Kubernetes clusters and clouds.

“Early on, VMware realized Envoy would become the platform for next-generation security services,” wrote Tom Gillis, SVP/GM of VMware’s Networking and Security Business Unit in a blog about the Mesh7 acquisition. “Once the deal closes, the integration of Mesh7’s contextual API behavior security solution with Tanzu Service Mesh will enable VMware to deliver high fidelity understanding of which applications components are talking to which using APIs.”

This combination of VMware and Mesh7 will appeal to developers and security teams, Gillis added. It will give both teams “a better understanding of when, where and how applications and microservices are communicating via APIs, even across multi-cloud environments, enabling better DevSecOps,” he wrote.

“I like this acquisition a lot as it addresses a gap VMware has,” said Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst at ZK Research, adding that he expect to see more mergers and acquisitions in this space.

“Business are shifting to composite enterprises where apps are being built by making API calls to multiple clouds and edges,” Kerravala said. “This changes the way apps are secured as traditional tools protect the network but not the API-to-API connectivity. Mesh7 provides the firewall capabilities for cluster-to-cluster, multi-cloud networking. This space is starting to heat up as well.”

The move comes as other security vendors and investors alike are throwing billions of dollars at cloud-native security startups.

Earlier this month developer-focused security startup Snyk closed a $300 million Series E funding round, which brings its total raised to $470 million and pushed its valuation to $4.7 billion.

On the same day cloud-native security company Aqua Security joined the cybersecurity unicorn club with $135 million in Series E funding that pushed its valuation above $1 billion. Aqua’s funding since its founding in 2015 now totals $265 million.

Palo Alto Networks last month plunked down $156 million to acquire DevOps security startup Bridgecrew. Palo Alto Networks said it will fold the startup’s technology, which codifies infrastructure configuration during development, into its Prisma Cloud security platform to allow it to integrate cloud across the application lifecycle.

And Google recently said it would devote and fund two Linux kernel developers solely to security maintainers at the Linux Foundation.