Israeli cybersecurity firm Cyera has successfully raised $300 million, achieving a valuation of $1.4 billion. This funding round was spearheaded by investment firm Coatue, with contributions from new investors such as Spark Capital, Georgian, and AT&T Ventures, as well as existing investors Sequoia, Accel, Redpoint, and Cyberstarts. The company has so far amassed $460 million in funding, with this current round marking a substantial leap in the company's valuation from its previous funding round in 2022.
Yotam Segev, the CEO and one of the founders of the company, said the recent funding does not signify a bubble or a return to the exuberance of 2021. He stated, "Securing significant funding in this round was crucial for us. We are considering acquisitions and wish to enter the competitive market with considerable force. Our competitors are well-established and larger. This funding will enable us to contend with such competitors."
Segev further added, "This round of funding is a testament to the company's performance over the past three years. We have been achieving sales in the tens of millions of dollars annually to significant clients, including Paramount-AT&T. We forecast aggressive growth in the upcoming years. The demand for our product is immense, spurred by the growing use of AI and new regulatory requirements from the SEC."
"We possess the elements necessary to evolve into a company yielding a billion dollars at a considerably high growth rate. We operate in a sector filled with evolving challenges. We've created a cloud and AI-based platform that not only excites our clients but also resolves issues that were previously unaddressed. We've successfully rooted ourselves in the American market. We have a substantial sales team and a strong brand presence," Segev further elaborated.
He concluded, "There was significant interest to participate in this funding round and seeing the quality of investors, we allowed it. I do not foresee selling the company anytime soon. The cybersecurity market needs to reassess its size and strength. It's a market that currently only has two major cybersecurity players - Palo Alto and CrowdStrike. In the past, we considered $10 billion to be the hallmark of a massive cyber company, but today it's just another company."
"The first question a Chief Information Security Officer dealing with a breach asks is what data was stolen. If they can answer within a few hours, they're in a good position. If it takes weeks - then they're history. We're talking about something that happens every other day and the ability to respond and mitigate is critical. We reduce risk in advance, know how to identify a breached fault, and locate the affected information. Everything starts to understand how the information is stored, where it is stored, and whether it has vulnerabilities," stated Yotam Segev.
Cyera was founded in early 2021 by Yotam Segev, who serves as the CEO, and Tamar Bar-Ilan, the firm's Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Both had previously worked together for a decade in Talpiot and 8200. Cyera's innovative product enables organizations to find and manage all their data in the cloud, offering solutions for identifying, securing, and minimizing the risks associated with the dispersion of data. It addresses a crucial challenge for organizations: managing vast amounts of data, identifying sensitive data amidst a sea of information, and providing risk analysis and mitigation strategies. Currently, Cyera has a workforce of 220, with Segev predicting that by the end of 2024, the company will have between 350 and 400 employees, including 120 based in Israel who constitute the company's entire product team.
Cyera has developed an information security platform powered by artificial intelligence. This platform provides immediate insights into an organization's data, enabling security teams to continuously monitor where sensitive data is stored, who has access, how it is secured, and any potential exposures that could heighten the data's risk. The platform also automates the remediation process, reducing the attack surface by harnessing the capabilities of the cloud and without requiring the customers to put in any additional effort or have any prior knowledge of the information they need to locate.
In conjunction with the funding announcement, the company has also appointed Jason Clark as the company's Chief Strategy Officer. Clark, who previously served as the Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Information Security Officer at Netskope, has been advising Cyera since its inception through his role at Cyberstarts. With a robust 30-year career, Clark has held several senior Go-To-Market roles at organizations like Optiv, Forcepoint, Emerson Electric, New York Times and the U.S. Armed Forces.