US tech giant Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) is in talks to acquire Israeli cybersecurity company Astrix Security for about $250-300 million, "The Information" website reports.
This is a premium of about $50-150 million over its current valuation of $192 million, which it received in its most recent financing round at the end of 2024, according to PitchBook. To date, the company has raised $91 million.
If the deal goes through, it would be a quick and impressive exit for several Israeli investors such as F2 Venture Capital and the Israeli branch of US fund Bessemer Venture Partners. The Ariely Group and Elron Ventures also invested in the company in the financing round 18 months ago at the $192 million valuation. Other investors include foreign funds Milo and CRV, but the most distinguished investor is Anthropic, which invested in the company through its joint Anthology fund with Menlo Ventures.
Astrix, which was ranked last year on Globes' listing of Israel’s ten most promising startups, was founded in 2021 by CEO Alon Jackson and president Idan Gour, both graduates of the IDF’s 8200 intelligence unit, and who were among the first to identify the trend of digital entities that are now called AI agents. These are AI-based programs that are able to perform a series of actions and replacing humans in tasks such as software development, providing customer service, data analysis and administrative management.
"Organizations can have thousands of agents, each of which has access permissions to sensitive organizational systems," Jackson told Globes last year. Astrix manages all types of non-human identities in the organization - AI agents, machines and any non-human entity that gains access to the organization's systems and identifies abnormal or malicious behavior patterns. The company, which employs about 130 people and serves clients such as Workday, has offices in Tel Aviv, San Francisco, London and Texas, and competes with other Israeli companies including Oasis Security.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 12, 2026.
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