Cyber unicorn Cyera acquires Trail Security in $162 million deal
Cyber unicorn Cyera acquires Trail Security in $162 million deal
In an all-Israeli deal, Cyera, the Israeli cyber unicorn, acquires Trail Security, which still operates under stealth mode. Trail has developed an advanced DLP solution based on Gen AI capabilities, suitable for organizations
Israeli cyber unicorn Cyera is acquiring the Israeli startup Trail Security for $162 million. According to estimates, most of the deal is in Cyera's shares, a private company that was valued at $1.4 billion during its last fundraising round in April 2024. Trail Security is a young startup established in 2023 and still operates in stealth mode.
According to Tamar Bar-Ilan, Cyera Co-founder and CTO, the founders of both companies first met in 2011 during their military service in the elite IDF Talpiot program and later in Unit 8200 (the vaunted Israeli Intelligence Corps unit). The founders of Trail Security were from a younger cohort than Cyera's founders.
Bar-Ilan explains that the acquisition aims to advance Cyera towards becoming a platform in the cybersecurity information security space (DSPM) by adding Trail Security's development in data loss prevention (DLP). He says that Trail Security already has an existing product and paying customers. "The vision is to build a large information security platform. Our customers have requested to integrate such capabilities, which propels us one to two years forward by shortening development times," Bar-Ilan explains.
Market estimates suggest that Cyera is currently generating revenue at a rate of tens of millions of dollars per year, competing with established companies such as Symantec and Israeli company Veronis. Palo Alto Networks, which is pushing the entire market towards unifying all cybersecurity functions on a single platform, also offers products in the DSPM and DLP sectors. However, like WIZ, Cyera is a company that was "born" in the cloud, so its solution is expected to be simpler to manage and operate. The DLP market is currently valued at $3 billion and is expected to grow to $21 billion by 2034.
Trail Security was founded in mid-2023 by CEO Zohar Vittenberg, CTO Nadav Zingerman, and VP R&D Roei Mutay. All three are alumni of the Talpiot program and Unit 8200. The company has so far raised approximately $35 million from Cyberstarts, Lightspeed, and CRV.
Cyera is a relatively young company, having been established only three years ago, but it has already raised $460 million from leading venture capital firms including Coatue, Sequoia, Accel, Spark, and Georgian. The Cyberstarts fund, led by Gili Rahman, has also invested in both companies.
Following the acquisition, all 35 employees of Trail Security will join Cyera, increasing its workforce to 400. Cyera anticipates that within three years, its R&D department will grow to around 500. The new team will serve as the foundation for expanding Cyera's DLP department, which is expected to include over 100 engineers by the end of 2025.
Trail Security has developed an advanced DLP solution based on Gen AI capabilities, suitable for organizations managing large volumes of sensitive information. The company's technology adds a real-time layer of protection that enables a transition from alerting to action, preventing data leaks.
Cyera's product allows organizations to identify and control all organizational data in the cloud by detecting, securing, and mitigating risks arising from data decentralization. Cyera addresses the critical challenge for organizations of controlling numerous data points, locating sensitive information among vast amounts of data, and analyzing risks and how to manage them. The integration of DSPM and DLP enables real-time enforcement of security policies and offers a comprehensive solution that meets the evolving cybersecurity challenges faced by organizations incorporating artificial intelligence and operating in cloud environments.