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Cylake funding: Nir Zuk’s new cybersecurity startup raised $245 million through a convertible note, bringing total financing to $290 million, as first reported by Calcalistech. Cylake was founded at the beginning of 2026 by Nir Zuk, Wilson Xu and Ehud (Udi) Shamir to build an AI-native cybersecurity platform for organizations that must retain control of data and infrastructure. The company says the platform will run on customers’ premises or in private clouds and will be built on a single, unified data foundation. Cylake emerged from stealth with a $45 million Seed round in March and now has more than 40 employees; it plans a beta toward the end of 2026 and general availability in 2027.
We are building Cylake for organizations that cannot compromise between adopting advanced cybersecurity technology and maintaining control of their data and infrastructure.
Nir Zuk, Cylake CEO
Key takeaways
- Fundraise: Cylake raised $245 million via a convertible note, taking total funding to $290 million.
- Earlier round: Cylake emerged from stealth in March with a $45 million Seed round led by Greylock Partners.
- Investors and board moves: New investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Picture Capital and Redpoint Ventures; Ravi Mhatre (Lightspeed) will join the board and Rakesh Loonkar (Picture Capital) will serve as a board observer.
- Product and timeline: Cylake is building an AI-native cybersecurity platform that can operate entirely on-premises or in private cloud environments and expects a beta toward the end of 2026 with general availability in 2027.
Table of contents
Why Cylake targets regulated, high-control customers
Cylake’s product strategy rests on a single distinction: some large organizations cannot shift critical security tooling to public cloud providers because of regulatory, sovereignty or operational-control requirements. The founders frame the company’s edge as the ability to deliver advanced, AI-based security while keeping data and infrastructure fully under customer control. That design target shapes technical choices from deployment options to data architecture.
The company says it is building a unified data foundation so security systems work from complete, organization-wide information rather than a set of fragmented, partial views. Unified data in this context means collecting and normalizing telemetry and logs inside a controlled environment so AI models can reason across the full estate. This is pitched as especially relevant for government agencies, critical infrastructure operators and financial institutions, where data sovereignty and auditability are explicit constraints.
Nir Zuk framed the trade-off plainly: “We are building Cylake for organizations that cannot compromise between adopting advanced cybersecurity technology and maintaining control of their data and infrastructure.” That line encapsulates the product-market fit the team is pursuing: advanced AI capabilities delivered on-premises or in private cloud stacks, not on public cloud platforms.
Funding, investors and governance
The latest tranche is a $245 million convertible note that takes Cylake’s total raised to $290 million, following a $45 million Seed round in March led by Greylock Partners. The convertible-note structure is the financing vehicle the company used in this round; the company described the amount and the instrument but did not publish conversion terms.
New institutional backers named include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Picture Capital and Redpoint Ventures. As part of the financing, Ravi Mhatre of Lightspeed will join Cylake’s board of directors and Rakesh Loonkar of Picture Capital will serve as a board observer. Those moves signal investor engagement at both the governance and product-development levels while the company scales engineering and product teams.
Cylake’s founders bring deep incumbent experience: Nir Zuk founded Palo Alto Networks in 2005 and served as CTO for more than two decades before announcing his departure last August; Wilson Xu led engineering at Palo Alto Networks for over a decade; Ehud (Udi) Shamir co‑founded SentinelOne in 2013. The investor and founder mix positions Cylake to sell to enterprise and regulated buyers where pedigree and board support matter in procurement decisions.
Product plan, partners and go-to-market timing
Cylake’s platform is being built to operate entirely on-premises or in private cloud environments, a requirement the company emphasises for customers with strict data control needs. The engineering effort centres on a unified data foundation designed to feed AI-based security capabilities with complete enterprise data rather than piecemeal inputs from multiple siloed tools.
The company says it is already working with a group of design partners while expanding engineering and product teams; the headcount is now more than 40 employees. Those design partnerships are intended to refine integrations, data flows and the operational model required for on‑prem AI, where deployment complexity and customer-specific adaptations are higher than for cloud-hosted services.
Cylake expects to ship a beta toward the end of 2026 and to reach general availability in 2027. That timeline places product-market testing and early deployments within the next several quarters; it also implies a multi‑quarter period for feedback, regulatory reviews and procurement cycles in the regulated organizations they target.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Latest round | $245 million convertible note |
| Total funding | $290 million |
| Seed round | $45 million led by Greylock Partners |
| Founders | Nir Zuk; Wilson Xu; Ehud (Udi) Shamir |
| Employees | More than 40 |
Case for and against Cylake’s trajectory
The case for
- The team’s incumbency in enterprise security and investor board support should speed enterprise sales cycles and open doors at regulated buyers.
- The $245 million convertible note and prior $45 million Seed give Cylake capital to scale engineering, complete product development and run pilots with design partners ahead of general availability.
The case against
- Targeting strictly on-premises deployments raises implementation complexity and operating costs compared with cloud-first competitors, which could slow customer rollouts.
- Selling to government agencies and financial institutions typically involves long procurement and compliance processes that can delay revenue even after a successful beta.
What to be careful about
- Long sales and procurement cycles among government and financial customers could stretch the timeline from beta to revenue.
- Delivering AI-driven capabilities fully on-premises increases integration and support demands versus cloud-native solutions.
- Dependence on an initial set of design partners to validate the unified data foundation creates concentration risk if those pilots fail to generalize.
- The company did not disclose convertible-note terms or valuation metrics, leaving financing mechanics and dilution outcomes uncertain.
The bottom line
Cylake’s $245 million convertible note takes the startup well beyond a typical seed budget and signals investor conviction in a niche: delivering advanced AI security where customers insist on control. The founders’ pedigree at Palo Alto Networks and SentinelOne, the new board additions and the reported design partnerships give the company credibility with enterprise buyers. That credibility will be tested by the technical challenge of a unified, on‑premises data foundation and by lengthy procurement cycles in regulated sectors. The next milestones — a beta at the end of 2026 and GA in 2027 — will be decisive for product-market fit and early commercial traction.
What to watch
- Watch for Cylake’s beta release toward the end of 2026, the milestone the company has set to validate integrations and the unified data foundation.
- Watch for Cylake’s general availability in 2027, when the company plans to move from pilot deployments to broader commercial sales.
Frequently asked questions
How much has Cylake raised so far?
Cylake raised $245 million in the latest convertible note, bringing total funding to $290 million after a $45 million Seed round in March led by Greylock Partners.
What product is Cylake building and who is it for?
Cylake is building an AI-native cybersecurity platform designed to operate entirely on-premises or in private cloud environments for organisations with strict regulatory or sovereignty requirements, such as government agencies, critical infrastructure operators and financial institutions.
When will Cylake’s product be available?
The company expects to release a beta toward the end of 2026 and to reach general availability in 2027.
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