Cybersecurity unicorn Cato Networks snags $359m, soaring to $4.8 billion valuation
Investment in entrepreneur Shlomo Kramer’s company, a maker of cloud-based secure networks, comes almost two years after previous round, when the firm was valued at $3 billion
Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel
Cato Networks, a maker of cloud-based, secured networks for large enterprises that lets remote workers connect to applications regardless of where they are, has raised $359 million in funding at a company valuation of about $4.8 billion.
The financing was led by new investors including London-based investment firm Vitruvian Partners and Israeli growth fund ION Crossover Partners. Existing investors LightSpeed Venture Partners, global asset manager Adams Street Partners, and San Francisco-based venture capital firm Acrew Capital also joined the funding bonanza.
The Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity firm said the freshly raised funds will be used to “redefine enterprise security for the digital and AI era,” noting that today’s IT and security leaders face mounting complexity, limited staff, and overwhelming pressure to “secure everywhere and enable anything.”
The funding marks the cybersecurity firm’s biggest round, after it raised $238 million at a $3 billion valuation in September 2023, a month before the outbreak of war with the Hamas terror group. The fresh capital takes the firm’s total funds raised to date from investors to more than $1 billion.
The vote of confidence in the Israeli cybersecurity industry comes just two weeks after Israeli data security startup Cyera raised $540 million in a round that doubled its valuation to $6 billion.
Cato was co-founded in 2015 by Shlomo Kramer, a cybersecurity entrepreneur who previously co-founded Check Point Software Technologies and Imperva, Inc. French aerospace and defense electronics group Thales bought Imperva Inc. in 2023 in a deal worth $3.6 billion.
Kramer created Cato with former Imperva colleague Gur Shatz to develop cloud-based, secured networks for large enterprises that can be accessed from any location, including via mobile devices.
The secure access service edge, or SASE platform, provides a single cloud-based network that connects and secures any physical location, cloud resource, or mobile device to any application accessed by users regardless of where they are signing in from. The firm says its platform is also designed to enable enterprises adopt AI tools across the business in a secure and controlled manner.
“With Cato, AI handles the noise so our customers can focus on strategy,” Kramer said. “We’re embedding AI into the DNA of infrastructure itself. Routine tasks are automated. Response workflows are accelerated. Risk management decisions are guided by actionable live data, not outdated reports.”
“This isn’t about tools—it’s about a new operating model that is efficient, resilient, and optimized,” he remarked.
Cato currently has more than 1,400 workers of whom 670 are employed in Israel. Its SASE platform is used by more than 3,500 enterprises, including Carlsberg and the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E.
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