Palo Alto Networks founder Nir Zuk raises $245 million for new cybersecurity startup
Cylake has now raised $290 million less than a year after its founding, including a $45 million Seed round in March. The company is developing an AI-native security platform for highly regulated organizations that need to keep control of their data and infrastructure.
Cybersecurity company Cylake, founded by Palo Alto Networks founder Nir Zuk, has raised $245 million through a convertible note, bringing its total funding to $290 million.
The latest financing follows the company’s emergence from stealth in March with a $45 million Seed round led by Greylock Partners.
The new investment includes Lightspeed Venture Partners, Picture Capital and Redpoint Ventures. As part of the financing, Ravi Mhatre of Lightspeed will join Cylake’s board of directors, while Rakesh Loonkar of Picture Capital will serve as a board observer.
Cylake was founded at the beginning of 2026 by Zuk, who serves as CEO, together with Wilson Xu and Ehud (Udi) Shamir. Zuk founded Palo Alto Networks in 2005 and served as the company’s CTO for more than two decades before announcing his departure last August. Xu helped build Palo Alto Networks for over a decade, including leading the engineering team. Udi Shamir co-founded SentinelOne in 2013.
The company is developing a complete, AI-native cybersecurity platform for large organizations operating under strict regulatory and security requirements, including government agencies, critical infrastructure operators and financial institutions.
Cylake’s platform is designed to operate entirely on-premises or in private cloud environments, allowing customers to retain control over their data, infrastructure and operations rather than relying on public cloud infrastructure. The company is building the platform around a unified data foundation intended to give security systems a broader view of an organization’s data and infrastructure, rather than relying on fragmented tools that operate on partial information.
The approach is also intended to allow organizations to deploy AI-based security capabilities while maintaining data sovereignty and operational control, a particular concern for institutions operating under strict regulatory or security constraints.
“We are building Cylake for organizations that cannot compromise between adopting advanced cybersecurity technology and maintaining control of their data and infrastructure,” said Zuk. “In those cases, the public cloud is not the right operating model. The architecture needs to be rebuilt around complete data, sovereignty, and control for an AI-native world. This investment lets us accelerate that work.”
Cylake is currently working with a group of design partners and has expanded its engineering and product teams since emerging from stealth. The company now has more than 40 employees and plans to continue hiring across engineering, product and other functions.
It expects to release a beta version toward the end of 2026, with general availability planned for 2027.
“Having worked with Nir for more than 30 years, I’ve seen firsthand his ability to anticipate where the market is going and build the anchor products that will define the next generation of cybersecurity,” said Loonkar. “Cylake is already partnering with some of the top organizations across industries on product development, and I’m confident demand will only accelerate as the team moves toward general availability.”
