Eleven Israeli or Israeli-founded cybersecurity startups have been selected for the first cohort of Google’s Gemini Startup Forum: Cybersecurity, accounting for one-third of the 33 companies chosen worldwide.
The group includes eight startups based in Israel and three U.S.-based companies founded by Israelis. Participants will work with artificial intelligence and cybersecurity specialists from Google Cloud, Google DeepMind and Israeli cloud security company Wiz to develop new tools for autonomous digital defense.
Google said the program reflects the cybersecurity industry’s shift from traditional perimeter protection toward systems built around autonomous AI agents, enterprise governance and the secure deployment of self-directed artificial intelligence.
The selected companies will receive access to Google infrastructure, advanced AI models, tools, training and technical resources through the Google for Startups Gemini Kit. The forum is intended to accelerate AI-based cybersecurity development and encourage deeper collaboration on emerging threats.
The cohort is divided into six focus areas, including AI agent governance, application security, cloud and network protection, endpoint security, security operations center automation and specialized cybersecurity services.
Two Israeli companies were selected in the AI agent security and governance category.
Capsule Security provides real-time protection and behavioral monitoring for autonomous AI agents. Its platform tracks agent activity, application programming interface calls and tool usage to prevent unauthorized actions and data theft across software-as-a-service applications and endpoint devices.
Onyx Security offers a centralized control platform for discovering, managing and monitoring autonomous AI agents across corporate systems. It analyzes agent security posture, tracks data flows and enforces context-based security and compliance policies.
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Alt Security was selected in the application security and vulnerability management category. The Israeli company is developing an AI-based penetration testing platform that uses autonomous agents to conduct reconnaissance, connect vulnerability findings, identify critical business risks and validate potential exploits in isolated environments.
Several Israeli companies were chosen in the cloud, network and infrastructure security category.
Huskeys develops technology that automatically adjusts digital firewall filters in real time, reducing false alarms and preventing legitimate users from being blocked.
Native provides a centralized security platform for multicloud environments, managing built-in security controls across Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Oracle. Its simulation engine allows companies to assess the likely operational impact of security policy changes before they are deployed.
QIZ Security helps companies manage encryption assets and regulatory requirements through a unified dashboard. Its system maps security certificates, databases and source code into a knowledge graph intended to help organizations prepare for post-quantum cryptography.
Glow, another Israeli company, was selected in the endpoint security and data protection category. It combines endpoint, software and AI agent monitoring in a single workspace security layer, using multiple cooperating AI agents to map an organization’s software environment and block unauthorized browser extensions and plugins.
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Three U.S.-based startups founded by Israelis were also selected in that category.
Bold Security develops an endpoint security agent intended to protect corporate devices from data leaks and insider threats. The system runs local data classification models directly on devices, allowing security policies to be enforced without delays caused by cloud processing.
Jazz develops a new form of data loss prevention technology that examines user intent and business context rather than relying only on fixed rules. Its lightweight endpoint agent and automated investigation system are designed to prioritize and resolve potential data leakage alerts.
ORION Security operates a data loss prevention platform that tracks the movement of files across endpoints, browsers and software-as-a-service tools. By mapping data flows, it seeks to identify exfiltration risks without requiring companies to manually define security policies.
Mate Security was selected in the security operations center automation and offensive security category. The Israeli company investigates cybersecurity alerts at scale through an AI-based operations platform that integrates with existing security information and event management systems and security orchestration tools. It maps relationships between digital assets, automatically prioritizes alerts and seeks to reduce false positives.
The broader cohort also includes companies from the United States, Britain, Ireland, France, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Poland and Spain.
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Google said the companies will work with specialists to refine their product road maps and build systems designed to make digital infrastructure safer and more resilient.
Sandra Joyce, vice president of Google Threat Intelligence, said startups were playing a central role in addressing increasingly complex cybersecurity challenges and were using AI to expand their reach and capabilities.
Google said it has supported more than 50 cybersecurity founders over the past four years through its startup programs.
The company said this year’s group demonstrates the industry’s growing focus on securing AI agents themselves, rather than only protecting networks, devices and applications from external attacks.