After Armis’ sale, the spotlight turns to Claroty and Axonius in asset visibility cybersecurity
As organizations struggle to map and secure sprawling networks of connected devices, the two unicorns are emerging as the next potential exits in a suddenly red-hot market.
The Asset Management and Visibility sector, long regarded as a relatively dormant corner of cybersecurity, has rapidly become one of the industry’s hottest areas. The most prominent company, and the one that has dominated headlines, is Armis, founded by Yevgeny Dibrov and Nadir Izraei. Alongside it operate two other major unicorns, Claroty and Axonius. Each has its own area of specialization, but all three compete in the same market and frequently find themselves up against one another.
At the core, these companies provide the most basic layer of cybersecurity infrastructure: you cannot protect what you do not know exists. As the attack surface has expanded far beyond the personal computer to factories, cloud environments, and medical devices, asset visibility has become essential for every large organization.
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Claroty CEO Yaniv Vardi (right) and Armis CEO Yevgeny Dibrov.
(Photos: Docoart and Armis)
In November, Armis completed a $435 million fundraising round at a valuation of $6.1 billion, electrifying the market, only to stun it about a month later with an agreement to sell the company to U.S. software giant ServiceNow for $7.75 billion. The scale of the deal involving Armis, which many had viewed as firmly on track for an IPO, shone a powerful spotlight on the sector in which Claroty and Axonius also operate.
Axonius, led by co-founder and CEO Dean Sysman, recently laid off around 100 employees, fueling market speculation about a possible sale. Among the rumored suitors were Cisco and Claroty. Claroty itself, led by CEO Yaniv Vardi, raised $150 million on Thursday at a valuation of approximately $3 billion.
The renewed attention surrounding the sector is no coincidence. It reflects several deep structural shifts, many of them accelerated by artificial intelligence. At their core, all three companies aim to solve what security teams increasingly describe as organizational “blindness.” Modern enterprises no longer consist only of laptops and servers, but of thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of connected devices. These include industrial machines, sensors, medical equipment, and “smart” office devices, many of which operate without dedicated security software.
Armis, Claroty, and Axonius enable security managers to see, in real time, every device connected to the corporate network, including those without agents installed. Their growing importance is driven by three global trends.
First, systems that were once physically isolated are now online. Factory floors, water systems, and energy infrastructure are increasingly connected to IT networks, meaning a cyber intrusion can disrupt production lines or compromise critical services. Claroty and Armis position themselves as guardians of this fragile connection between operational technology and the internet.
Second, the explosion of “smart” devices, from printers and sensors to refrigerators, has created vast new attack surfaces. These devices are often poorly secured and can serve as hidden entry points for attackers. Armis is widely regarded as a pioneer in identifying and mapping these assets.
Third, large organizations now operate dozens of security tools that often do not communicate with one another. Axonius addresses this fragmentation by aggregating data from across systems, allowing security teams to quickly understand what is connected, what is protected, and where gaps remain.
Speaking to Calcalist following Claroty’s latest fundraising, Vardi explained why demand is surging. “Our market is red hot because of attacks on hospitals and manufacturing and industrial companies,” he said. “There has been 100% growth in attacks on hospitals. Today, attackers have AI that allows them to attack easily and quickly.”
According to industry estimates, the sector’s revival will not end with Claroty’s capital raise or Armis’s sale. Additional headline-grabbing moves may follow as large technology companies seek to expand their cybersecurity footprints. ServiceNow already generates cybersecurity-related revenue, but its acquisition of Armis could push it further along a path similar to Microsoft’s, which now generates billions of dollars annually from cybersecurity alone.
Both Axonius and Claroty recognize they are operating in a red-hot market. Asked about Claroty’s future, Vardi said the company plans to remain independent and pursue an IPO, but did not rule out an acquisition. “We will become profitable, not in the distant future, and our desire is to go public,” he said. “But sometimes things happen in a way that is hard to ignore.”
Whether Claroty or Axonius will be the next major exit in cybersecurity remains unclear. What is increasingly certain, however, is that asset visibility, once a niche concern, has become one of the most valuable battlegrounds in the cyber industry.
