It’s official: Palo Alto Networks formally announces intent to acquire Dig Security
It’s official: Palo Alto Networks formally announces intent to acquire Dig Security
The long-rumored news has finally been confirmed by the company as it “enters into a definitive agreement” with the startup
Following CTech's reporting yesterday that Palo Alto Networks intended to announce its acquisition of Israeli firm Dig Security, the company has formally announced the news and “entered into a definitive agreement”. In the official announcement, the company did not specify the amount, but Calcalist learned that it will amount to $315 million.
Dig was founded in 2021 by Dan Benjamin, Ido Azran, and Gad Akuka, three veteran entrepreneurs who’ve previously founded successful companies that were acquired by major firms. They also gained experience at tech giants including Google and Microsoft. In September 2022 the startup secured a $34 million Series A investment. The round was led by San Francisco-based venture capital firm, SignalFire, with participation from, Felicis Ventures, Okta Ventures, and Team8. Dig’s Series A brought its total funding to $45 million less than a year after its Seed round in October 2021. Its Seed round included Merlin Ventures, CrowdStrike, through its Falcon Fund, and CyberArk.
Dan Benjamin, co-founder and CEO at Dig said: “Just over two years after we founded Dig, it is being acquired having achieved incredible momentum, traction, and global recognition as the leading vendor in the DSPM and DDR categories. This is a testament to our exceptionally strong team and technology. We’re extremely proud of this milestone and look forward to scale our vision as part of the Palo Alto Networks family”.
Liran Grinberg, co-founder and managing Partner at Team8 said: “While Israel is still mourning for the victims of the October 7th terrorist attack and dealing with the challenges of the war with Hamas, the completion of Dig’s acquisition by Palo Alto Networks is another strong testament to the resilience of the Israeli tech ecosystem which continues to deliver, no matter what. Team8 is proud of Dig’s founders and employees for pioneering their space and achieving this fantastic milestone in such a short time”
Palo Alto, founded in 2005 by Israeli Nir Zuk, is the world's largest cyber company in terms of market cap. Dig was founded by Benjamin, Ido Azran, and Gad Akuka, all of whom will continue leading their teams in joining the Prisma Cloud team at Palo Alto Networks after closing.
“The announcement of our intent to join forces with Dig reinforces our longstanding commitment to our team in Israel and to continue growing our footprint with its talented and dedicated cybersecurity professionals,” said Lee Klarich, Chief Product Officer for Palo Alto Networks. Ankur Shah, its SVP of Products, Prisma Cloud, added: “Dig lets security teams see and secure their data across multi-cloud environments. This visibility and security is becoming increasingly important in the age of generative AI.”
Today, nearly 70% of companies have data stored in the public cloud with sensitive data often even more spread out across cloud services, including distributed databases, vector databases, PaaS services, among others. Companies need assistance in identifying that sensitive data and thus effectively managing user access and implementing robust security measures to protect against internal and external threats. At the same time, the rise in volume and impact of cloud data breaches remains high.
Dig’s DSPM solution helps organizations discover, classify, monitor, and protect sensitive data across all cloud data stores, giving Palo Alto Networks' customers visibility into and control of their multi-cloud data estate. Following the acquisition, Dig’s solution will be integrated into the Prisma Cloud platform to offer data protection from ‘code to cloud’.
"Modern cloud applications leverage a broad set of data stores to meet the complex needs of businesses,” said Benjamin. “Integrating Dig's technology with Prisma Cloud will enable customers to effectively manage the security of their diverse data stores in modern cloud applications and reduce the risk of data breaches. My co-founders and I look forward to continuing our innovation journey with Palo Alto Networks to make the world safer."
