After raising $51 million, Minimus shuts down as Twistlock founders return remaining cash to investors
The cybersecurity startup failed to gain enough commercial momentum to continue operating. Customers will have 60 days to migrate before the company's registry is switched off.
The founders of container security pioneer Twistlock are shutting down their latest cybersecurity startup, Minimus, bringing an unusual end to a company that raised $51 million from prominent investors but failed to build enough commercial momentum in an increasingly crowded market.
Ben Bernstein, Dima Stopel and John Morello, who sold Twistlock to Palo Alto Networks for approximately $410 million in 2019, announced that Minimus will cease operations and return its remaining cash to investors.
The decision comes less than three years after the company raised its $51 million Seed round from YL Ventures and Mayfield, one of the larger Seed financings in the Israeli cybersecurity industry at the time. The company had around 60 employees as recently as four months ago.
Unlike many startup shutdowns, however, Minimus is not simply disappearing. The founders have committed to a 60-day maintenance period to give customers time to migrate away from the company's technology before the Minimus registry is permanently switched off.
"Minimus is ending operations," the founders wrote in a statement posted on the company's website. "Unfortunately, the current business and investment climate has resulted in a situation in which we are unable to continue operations."
The company said that beginning August 24 it would maintain its product and images for 60 days, including bug fixes, commercial support and upstream updates. On October 22, it will shut down the Minimus registry. Images downloaded before that date will continue to function, but the company will no longer provide updates.
For enterprise customers, Minimus said it would begin contacting them individually on August 24 to arrange the termination of their agreements, including refunds where applicable for contract periods extending beyond October 22.
The shutdown illustrates a difficult reality for even highly experienced cybersecurity entrepreneurs: a strong pedigree, substantial funding and a compelling technical proposition are not enough to guarantee a viable business in a market where customers already have numerous security products competing for their budgets.
Bernstein, Stopel and Morello entered the market with considerable credibility.
The three entrepreneurs founded Twistlock, which became one of the pioneers of container security before being acquired by Palo Alto Networks for approximately $410 million in 2019. All three went on to become prominent figures in Israel's cybersecurity industry.
Their next company began in late 2022 under the name Gutsy. It initially pursued a different product direction before pivoting and eventually adopting the Minimus name, while also reducing its workforce as it narrowed its focus.
The company ultimately concentrated on security at the foundation of the software supply chain: the containers and virtual machines on which applications run.
Rather than primarily detecting vulnerabilities after software had been built, Minimus sought to reduce the number of vulnerabilities present in the first place. Its technology provided stripped-down container images and virtual machines designed to contain far fewer known vulnerabilities, or CVEs.
When the company launched publicly in April 2025, it argued that its approach could eliminate more than 95% of vulnerabilities from software supply chains.
