1Password acquires Israeli cyber startup Apono in $250M-$300M deal
AI-era identity security startup joins the Canadian cybersecurity giant as it expands beyond password management into access governance.
Cybersecurity company Apono has been acquired by Canadian cybersecurity firm 1Password. The companies did not disclose the purchase price, but Calcalist has learned that the deal is valued at between $250 million and $300 million. All 80 of Apono’s employees, around 50 of whom are based in Israel, will join the acquiring company. 1Password also intends to continue expanding its operations in Israel by hiring additional employees. The deal marks 1Password’s first acquisition in Israel.
Apono, which operates an AI-powered platform for managing permissions and access to cloud infrastructure, was founded in 2022 by CEO Rom Carmel and CTO Ofir Stein, who have worked together in the DevOps and cybersecurity sectors for more than 20 years. Carmel previously held R&D management positions in the cyber division of the Prime Minister’s Office, where he gained extensive experience in enterprise security. Stein, who served as an officer in the Air Force’s Ofek unit, was among the first developers at Logz.io and led the development of one of the company’s core products.
In December 2025, Apono announced a Series B funding round, bringing its total funding since inception to $54 million. Among its investors is Meron Capital, which led the Seed round and remains one of the company’s largest shareholders. The Series B round was led by USVP and 33N Ventures, while the Series A round was led by New Era Capital. Additional investors include Mindset Ventures, Redseed Ventures, Silvertech Ventures, and Booster Ventures.
Ziv Conen, a partner at New Era Capital and an Apono board member, said: “What made this story special was the company’s ability to expand its vision to the next frontier of cybersecurity: securing access for AI agents.”
Apono develops a platform that manages access permissions across cloud infrastructure, enterprise applications, and corporate databases. The platform eliminates the need for standing permissions by providing dynamic, real-time access based on business needs and context.
The company serves customers across the United States, including Fortune 500 companies, as well as technology and insurance firms in the U.S., Europe, and Israel. Its customers include Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Jasper, and Bloomreach.
1Password, which specializes in identity and access security, is valued at approximately $6.8 billion and has been expanding through acquisitions. At the end of 2025, the company reported annual recurring revenue (ARR) of more than $400 million.
The acquisition of Apono expands 1Password’s business beyond password and credential management into the broader fields of access governance and identity security, markets in which Israeli companies such as CyberArk and Wiz are also major players.
The acquisition comes at a time when organizations are rapidly adopting artificial intelligence and facing a surge in the number of non-human digital identities, including AI agents operating alongside human employees.
Apono’s platform enables organizations to manage increasingly complex access environments and automatically enforce policies governing who can access information and systems, when they can access them, why they need access, and for how long. Access is granted on a just-in-time basis and is automatically revoked once a task is completed.
Because access is created only when needed and removed immediately afterward, organizations no longer need to manage large numbers of permanent accounts and permissions, making the system easier to deploy and operate.
The platform supports access management across systems and infrastructure including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, Snowflake, and Databricks. It also integrates with more than 200 enterprise applications, including Slack, Jira, PagerDuty, GitHub, and many others.
