After raising $1 billion in six months, Cyera says trust is AI's missing infrastructure
CEO Yotam Segev argues that governing what AI can see and do is becoming the next major enterprise challenge.
After announcing a $600 million funding round that valued Cyera at $12 billion, CEO Yotam Segev offered a clearer explanation for why investors continue to pour money into one of cybersecurity's fastest-growing companies.
The Israeli startup, which has now raised $1 billion in just six months following a $400 million round in January, is betting that the next phase of the artificial intelligence boom will be shaped less by who builds the most powerful models and more by who controls what those systems are allowed to see and do.
"We've spent the last five years inside the world's leading companies watching what AI is already doing," Segev wrote in a blog post published after the financing was announced. "Every enterprise working hard to achieve AI transformation continues to land on the same question: can they actually trust AI?"
The comments offer a glimpse into the investment thesis that has helped propel Cyera from a $3 billion valuation in 2024 to $12 billion today, making it one of the most valuable privately held cybersecurity companies in the world.
The latest funding round, led by Evolution Equity Partners with participation from Cyberstarts, Temasek and existing investors, comes amid an intense race among cybersecurity companies to position themselves at the center of corporate AI adoption.
While much of the industry's attention has focused on the infrastructure powering artificial intelligence, from Nvidia chips to foundation models and cloud computing capacity, Segev argues that another layer remains largely unresolved.
"The industry built out chips, models and compute," he wrote. "What it needs now is the layer that determines what AI can see and do."
That argument has increasingly become central to Cyera's strategy.
Founded in 2021 by Segev and CTO Tamar Bar-Ilan, both graduates of the Talpiot program and Unit 8200, the company initially focused on helping enterprises understand where sensitive data resides and who can access it. According to Segev, that challenge has become significantly more important as organizations deploy AI systems that increasingly interact directly with corporate information.
Over the past year, Cyera has expanded well beyond its original data security offering. The company says it launched more than 100 new product capabilities spanning data security posture management, privacy, identity management, data loss prevention and AI governance.
The expansion has been accompanied by an aggressive acquisition strategy. In recent months Cyera acquired Genie Security for an estimated $50 million and Ryft for an estimated $100 million, adding to earlier acquisitions that included Trail Security, Otterize and Shape AI.
The company now employs more than 1,500 people across 18 countries and says its annual recurring revenue has tripled for three consecutive years.
For investors, the speed of Cyera's growth may be as significant as the size of its latest financing. The company was valued at $6 billion in 2025 before raising $400 million at a $9 billion valuation in January. Six months later, that valuation has climbed again to $12 billion.
The scale of the fundraising reflects broader investor enthusiasm for companies positioned around AI infrastructure. But Segev's message suggests Cyera sees itself competing in a category distinct from the companies building the models themselves.
The company's pitch is that enterprises will ultimately need a system capable of governing how AI agents interact with sensitive information, determining what data they can access and what actions they are allowed to take.
"Trust is the real currency of AI transformation," Segev wrote. "The companies that win will be the ones that treated that trust as critical infrastructure, not an afterthought."
