Israeli startup Cato Networks, a leader in Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) cybersecurity, has made its first buy for an undisclosed price in AI-focused startup Aim Security.
The deal is the latest move by an Israeli firm to add cybersecurity and artificial intelligence to its toolbox, while finding major financial backers to take it the next steps strategically.
“AI transformation is by far the biggest tsunami that I’ve seen in terms of impact on the enterprise, in terms of velocity and in terms of the security challenge,” Cato’s chief executive officer and co-founder, Shlomo Kramer, told Bloomberg. “This is a completely new area in security in which the security stack needs to be developed from zero.”
Why does it matter?
The influx of capital brings Cato’s valuation to around $4.8 billion, with total funding now exceeding $1 billion. Cato says it gets rid of things like routers and firewalls to make a seamless, cloud-based security system.
The acquisition of Aim, which brings advanced AI governance and detection tools, including defenses against AI-specific threats like the recently disclosed “EchoLeak” Copilot flaw, is supposed to be a snap-on buy with Cato’s positioning as a unified security platform for the AI era.
Cato’s investor base brings a combination of deep-pocketed institutional backing and strategic insight. Vitruvian and ION offer growth capital, while Lightspeed, Acrew, and Adams Street have provided multi-stage support since early SASE development. This brings both financial muscle and sector expertise to Cato’s expansion.
Aim Security’s backers—Canaan, GV, and others—are well known for nurturing early-stage cybersecurity and AI startups. Their exit through acquisition by Cato delivers a successful venture outcome and reinforces the emerging value of AI-security innovation.
As AI becomes embedded in enterprise operations from automation to analytics, the pressure on businesses to defend those systems is growing. Cato’s acquisition positions the company to capture that demand. But success hinges on its ability to integrate Aim’s technologies effectively and deliver tangible security outcomes in a fragmented regulatory landscape.
A tricky political backdrop
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