By Shula Rosen

(United With Israel) Cyera, an Israeli-founded cybersecurity company, announced Thursday that it has raised another $400 million, a jump that pushes the firm’s valuation to $9 billion and highlights how quickly the demand for AI-related security tools is growing.

The investment was led by the US financial giant Blackstone and extends a remarkable streak for the startup, whose valuation has tripled in just one year.

The new funding comes after two major rounds: $540 million six months ago and $300 million at the end of 2024.

Altogether, Cyera has brought in more than $1.7 billion from major investors including Accel, Coatue, Cyberstarts, Georgian, Lightspeed, Sapphire, and Sequoia Capital.

Cyera was launched in 2021 by Yotam Segev and Tamar Bar-Ilan, who first worked together in the IDF’s Unit 8200, where they were responsible for the military’s cloud security operations.

That experience, handling vast amounts of sensitive data, pushed them to develop a platform that helps companies understand exactly where their information is stored, how it’s being used, and how to protect it as AI becomes central to everyday business.

Segev said the rush to adopt AI has created new risks for companies that don’t fully understand the security implications. “AI is reshaping the foundations of how every organization operates,” he told the Times of Israel, explaining that businesses want to move fast but know they “cannot afford” to do so without proper safeguards.

The new investment, he added, will help the company protect even more sensitive data and give organizations confidence to use AI tools more broadly.

Cyera says its technology is now used by about 20 percent of Fortune 500 companies in industries ranging from finance and healthcare to retail and telecom.

The company has expanded rapidly over the past year, tripling its global workforce to 1,100 employees across 15 countries, including more than 400 staff in Israel.

Blackstone’s chief security officer, Adam Fletcher, said companies are struggling to keep up with new risks created by AI.

He described data as one of the fastest-growing attack surfaces and said more businesses are turning to unified security platforms as they adapt to this new reality.