Cybersecurity startup Cylake, founded by prominent Israeli cybersecurity entrepreneur Nir Zuk, has raised $45 million in funding led by Greylock and other technology investors, the company said Thursday.
The company is developing a comprehensive cybersecurity platform powered by artificial intelligence and data-driven analysis that can operate without reliance on public cloud infrastructure, allowing organizations to maintain full control and sovereignty over their data.
Cylake was founded by Zuk along with Wilson Xu and Ehud (Udi) Shamir. Zuk founded Palo Alto Networks in 2005 and served as the company’s chief technology officer for more than two decades. Xu previously helped build Palo Alto Networks over more than a decade, including leading engineering teams, while Shamir was among the founders of SentinelOne in 2013.
Cylake said its approach to cybersecurity is based on two central ideas. The first is that the next generation of AI-driven cybersecurity requires a holistic view of organizational infrastructure, combining data and context from multiple layers into a unified protection platform. Fragmented systems or partial data, the company says, can create security gaps that attackers may exploit.
The second principle focuses on data sovereignty. Many of the world’s largest and most highly regulated organizations cannot rely on cybersecurity solutions that depend on public cloud services because of regulatory or security requirements.
Cylake said its platform is designed to operate entirely in on-premises environments or within private clouds, allowing organizations to maintain full operational control while still benefiting from advanced cyber protection.
“Cybersecurity is constantly evolving, and sometimes new challenges demand completely new approaches,” Zuk said in a statement. “Cylake is for institutions where maintaining full control over data and operations is not optional.”
Asheem Chandna, a partner at Greylock, said the next generation of cybersecurity would rely increasingly on artificial intelligence and autonomous systems capable of analyzing large volumes of data and context.
“Cylake is focused on a segment of the market where security must operate under full control to meet regulatory and operational reality,” Chandna said.
The company said it will initially work with a limited group of development partners as it builds out the platform. Commercial availability of the product is expected in early 2027.