Cybersecurity specialist Cynet has secured a USD7 million investment from Lazarus, a US-based hedge fund.
Cynet was founded in 2015 by Eyal Gruner, Idan Amir, and Boaz Zilber, recognised leaders in Israel’s flourishing cybersecurity industry. Since its launch last year, Cynet has already experienced rapid growth with a global client base that includes dozens of large-scale enterprises in finance, healthcare, government, retail, and industrial sectors among others.
“We believe Cynet could be the next cybersecurity giant to come out of Israel,” says Brian Abrams, partner at Lazarus. “With their comprehensive solution and rapid proof-of-concept deployments, Cynet is going head-to-head with the biggest cybersecurity companies out there and winning.”
The new financing allows Cynet to strengthen its foundation, continuing to develop its groundbreaking threat detection and response technology, while expanding its worldwide presence. The company also has the option to take additional funding from Lazarus if it chooses to do so.
Cynet 360, which was recognised by CSO Outlook as one of the top ten detection and response solutions of 2015, enables organisations to rapidly uncover and remediate high risk threats that have managed to bypass their perimeter security solutions. Cynet’s strength lies in the platform it offers upon which it can provide customers of every size the solutions they need to detect and remediate even the most deeply hidden threats.
Leading the Cynet team is Eyal Gruner, former CEO and a co-founder of BugSec and Versafe, which was acquired by F5 Networks in 2013. Prior to this round, the founders self-funded the company.
“I was fortunate to get an early start in my career. Now my goal is to build a big company, an Israeli company, which will be around for many years to come,” says Gruner.
Cynet’s decision to raise funding from a US hedge fund, rather than a traditional venture capital firm, underscores its goal of targeting an initial public offering (IPO) rather than an acquisition by a larger firm.
“The strength of this company’s team, technology, and traction make it the rarest of start-ups,” says Abrams. “They’ve done it all before and this time they’re looking to eclipse their previous success by an order of magnitude.”
Coming off of the detection of several substantial cyber threats – the SNAP vulnerability affecting millions of LG G3 devices worldwide, and the FireStorm vulnerability affecting the firewalls of a number of major vendors – Cynet has proven itself not only via its satisfied customers, but as an elite force in the world of cyber security intelligence.
