Sanaz Yashar’s Zafran raising tens of millions as valuation climbs
The former Unit 8200 officer is preparing another multimillion-dollar raise after securing $70M across two rounds last year.
Zafran Security is set to announce a new funding round in the coming weeks, raising tens of millions of dollars at an increased valuation, according to Calcalist. The move would mark the company’s first fundraising event since September of last year and extend a rapid ascent led by co-founder and CEO Sanaz Yashar, whose background in military intelligence and commercial cyber investigations has shaped the company’s approach to risk mitigation.
If completed, the raise would follow Zafran’s $40 million round from September, led by Sequoia Capital’s growth fund with participation from existing investors and 01 Advisors partner David Fischer. That investment came only six months after the company secured $30.5 million in Seed funding from prominent backers including Doug Leone of Sequoia, Cyberstarts’ Gili Ra’anan and Lior Simon, and NBA star Steph Curry’s Penny Jar Capital.
The company did not comment on the report.
Founded in 2022 by Yashar, CTO Ben Seri, and CPO Snir Havdala, Zafran's platform analyzes both vulnerability data and the effectiveness of an organization’s existing security controls, allowing companies to distinguish between theoretical risks and those that can actually be leveraged by attackers.
For Yashar, who was born in Tehran, immigrated to Israel as a child, and spent 15 years in Unit 8200 before holding senior roles at FireEye-Mandiant, the company’s mission is shaped by years spent tracking attackers across geopolitical incidents. She worked on several major investigations, including the probe into a cyberattack against a central Israeli hospital, collaborating with the co-founders long before Zafran existed. Seri and Havdala, both decorated veterans of Israel’s military cyber units, bring decades of operational experience of their own.
