Cylake, Co-Founded by Nir Zuk, Raises $245 Million in Funding

Cylake, an American-Israeli cybersecurity firm co-founded by Palo Alto Networks founder Nir Zuk, has successfully raised $245 million in convertible notes. This significant funding round brings the company's total capital raised to $290 million, following a $45 million seed round earlier this year. The investment was led by venture capital firms Lightspeed Venture Partners and Redpoint Ventures, with participation from the Israeli fund Picture Capital.

As part of the deal, Ravi Mhatre of Lightspeed will join Cylake's board of directors, and Rakesh Lunani from Picture Capital will serve as an observer. Nir Zuk is leading the startup as CEO, alongside co-founders Wilson Shiu and Udi Shamir, who previously worked at SentinelOne. Currently, the company does not employ staff in Israel.

Cylake is developing an AI-powered information security system designed for large, heavily regulated organizations such as government agencies, critical infrastructure operators, and financial institutions. A key feature of their platform is its ability to operate entirely within a client's local infrastructure or in isolated private clouds, ensuring data sovereignty and independence from public cloud providers.

The company is collaborating with strategic planning partners and aims to release an initial beta version by the end of 2026, with a full commercial launch planned for 2027. In parallel, Nir Zuk has also received approval from U.S. regulators, specifically the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, to become a major shareholder in the parent company of Liberty Bank, a Californian financial institution, expanding his influence in the U.S. financial sector.