Israeli cybersecurity company Cato Networks has announced the completion of a $200 million financing round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with the participation of existing investors Greylock, Acrew Capital, Coatue, Singtel Innov8, and Shlomo Kramer. The financing was raised at a company valuation of $2.5 billion, up from $1 billion at its most recent financing round last November. This brings to $532 million, the total amount raised by Cato Networks.
Tel Aviv-based Cato Networks was founded in 2015 by its president and COO Gur Shatz and its CEO Shlomo Kramer, one of the founders of Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) and the founder of security company Imperva, which was acquired by Thoma Bravo for $2.1 billion.
Cato Networks has developed Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) technology to secure all enterprise edges - sites, mobile users, and cloud resources - with one global cloud-native platform. The new funds will enable Cato to expand sales, technology, and business growth to further support the security and global networking needs of large enterprises.
The company has 400 employees including 240 in Israel. Cato Networks reports that it has over 1,000 customers, up from 650 at its financing round last November.
Kramer said, "Cato is at the forefront of SASE transformation. Large enterprises are deploying Cato as their global network to reap the operational and business benefits of Cato’s proven and mature SASE platform. Cato is rapidly expanding its service capabilities, global footprint, and sales and marketing teams, while preserving our unique DNA of agility, simplicity, and ease of doing business that is so valued by customers and partners."
Lightspeed Venture Partners partner Yoni Cheifetz said, "Cato has seen an amazing adoption of its SASE platform by increasingly larger enterprises. What started as a disruptive innovation and a novel idea, is now a fast-growing business that is at the heart of enterprises’ mission critical operations. We are delighted to partner with Cato and support its mission of delivering optimal and secure access to all users, locations, and applications - everywhere."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 19, 2021.
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