US giant Cisco to buy Tel Aviv application security startup Portshift
Startup, set up in 2018 as part of the enterprise arm of the Team8 venture group, has raised $5.3 million in seed funding from Team8
Shoshanna Solomon was The Times of Israel's Startups and Business reporter
Cisco Systems Inc., the US maker of networking software and hardware, said in a blog post on Wednesday that it has acquired the Tel Aviv-based startup Portshift, a maker of application security solutions.
“Today, the application security space is highly fragmented with many vendors addressing only part of the problem,” Cisco’s Liz Centoni wrote in the blogpost. “The Portshift team is building capabilities that span a large portion of the lifecycle of the cloud-native application.”
The acquisition will allow Cisco “to move towards the delivery of security for all phases of the application development lifecycle,” she wrote. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Portshift also complements Cisco’s approach of providing secure connectivity between users, devices and apps, wherever they reside, she added.
Once the acquisition closes, the Portshift 15-person team will join Cisco’s Emerging Technologies & Incubation group, she wrote.
Portshift was founded in 2018 as part of the enterprise arm of the Team8 venture group.
The startup was set up by entrepreneurs with over 20 years’ experience in managing software, networking and developing embedded systems. Ran Ilany, the co-founder and CEO, is a former head of security infrastructure division at Check Point Technologies. Co-founder and chief technology officer Zohar Kaufman was a VP R&D at CTERA Networks and VP R&D at SofaWare, acquired by Check Point in 2013.
Portshift has raised $5.3 million in seed funding to date from Team8, which fosters and invests in startups in the fields of cybersecurity, AI, big data and fintech.
Cisco was one of the first investors in Team8.