Upwind, an Israeli cloud cybersecurity startup, is raising $100 million at a valuation between $850 million and $900 million. Sources say the round includes investments from new and existing backers such as Craft Ventures, Greylock, Cyberstarts, Leaders Fund, Omri Casspi’s Sheva Fund, and Stephen Curry’s investment fund Penny Jar. The Series B round is reportedly in its final stages and could close within days.
It follows Upwind’s acquisition of “dozens” of Fortune 500 companies and expansion of its staff to about 160. The company had previously raised just over $77 million, with its last valuation at $300 million in September 2023. The new funds will be used for research and development, as well as hiring an additional 100 employees across Israel, San Francisco, and Iceland.
Upwind secures substantial growth funding
Amiram Shachar, who previously sold his cloud spend management startup Spot.io to NetApp for $450 million, founded Upwind. The company is part of a wave of Israeli cybersecurity companies emerging from military intelligence backgrounds.
Upwind focuses on vulnerabilities in the cloud, using a platform that aims to reduce the volume of alerts from threat detection tools by 90%, helping security teams focus on actual threats. The company’s technology spans cloud services, including vulnerability management and identity security, as well as workloads like container security, detection and response, and API vulnerability management. These areas are often interrelated and benefit from a comprehensive platform approach.
Upwind’s rapid growth and substantial new funding highlight the accelerating demand for advanced cybersecurity solutions to protect cloud infrastructures from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
