Vega Security and Zafran Security are expected to announce funding rounds worth tens of millions of dollars in the coming weeks, according to Calcalist. Several Israeli cyber companies have revealed or finalized major investments in recent weeks, including Tanzie, founded by former Guardicore employees, which raised 75 million dollars.
Zafran was founded in 2022 by CEO Sanaz Yishar, CTO Ben Seri and CPO Snir Havdala. Yishar, who was born in Tehran and moved to Israel as a teenager, served about 15 years in elite intelligence units and was discharged as a major. She led cyber threat research and analysis teams at FireEye, which was acquired by Google, and worked on high-profile geopolitical investigations, including probing a cyberattack on a major Israeli hospital, during which she collaborated with Seri and Havdala. The company developed a platform that reduces the risk of exploiting organizational vulnerabilities and has raised about 70 million dollars to date. Investors include Sequoia Capital’s Growth fund, Gili Raanan and Lior Simon of Cyberstarts, 01 Advisors and Penny Jar of Stephen Curry.
The second company nearing an advanced funding round is Vega Security, founded in early 2024 by founders Shay Sandler and Eli Rosen, two lesser-known veterans of the industry who previously worked at Granulate. Since its founding, the company has raised 65 million dollars, while its valuation more than doubled between its first two rounds. The first investor, as in many cyber firms, was Raanan and Simon of Cyberstarts. Later rounds included prominent angels from Israel’s cyber and tech sectors and leading U.S. and European funds, including Redpoint in the United States, Accel in Europe and CRV. The company is still operating in stealth mode, has not yet launched publicly and its founders could not be reached for comment.
According to its published materials, Vega’s solutions promise a new method for detecting cyberattacks. Its valuation in the first round was estimated at roughly 200 million dollars, considered relatively high for an initial round. The ongoing second round is expected to at least double that figure.
Sandler, the CEO, is a Unit 8200 alumnus and a member of the founding team at Granulate. Intel acquired Granulate in 2022 for about 650 million dollars after it had raised 45 million dollars. Granulate developed a product to improve computing infrastructure performance and reduce costs. Intel recently shut down Granulate’s operations as part of its workforce cuts, and some employees were laid off. Rosen, the CTO, also served in Unit 8200 and later worked at Intello, which was acquired by SailPoint and specialized in cloud resource management, before joining Granulate.