Founders: Yotam Segev (CEO), Tamar Bar-Ilan, Yonatan Itai
Launched: 2021
Headquarters: New York City
Funding: $1.7 billion
Valuation: $9 billion
Key Technologies: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, deep neural networks/deep learning, explainable AI, generative AI, machine learning, software-defined security
Industry: Cybersecurity
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 list: 0
Cybersecurity startup Cyera is on a roll, redefining how to secure enterprise data in the age of AI.
Investors have piled into the fast-growing startup co-founded in Israel by CEO Yotam Segev and CTO Tamar Bar-Ilan, who both served in an elite unit of the Israeli Defense Force. Segev was head of the cyber department in Israeli Military Intelligence. Several key members of the R&D team are also ex-elite military. The company — rooted in Israeli's deep expertise in cybersecurity which has produced other recent big market winners and former Disruptors such as Wiz — has expanded to 15 countries across North America, EMEA, and APAC.
In a signal of the increasing market opportunity in data protection for an AI world, Cyera nabbed a $540 million Series E funding at a roughly $6 billion valuation in June 2025, which then climbed to $9 billion in a $400 million fundraising in January 2026. Blackstone led the round with prior investors Sequoia Capital, Accel and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Cyberstarts, a venture investor specifically in cybersecurity startups, is also a backer.
In this highly competitive, expanding field with other well-funded public companies such as CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks and Wiz, Cyera has earmarked the new capital for investing heavily in product development. Recent product launches in enterprise AI are designed to reduce false positives, secure AI systems in real time, and automate investigation of risks and remedies. Additionally, Cyera introduced AI Guardian as a single comprehensive security platform that combines risk detection and automated safeguards. Cyera also acquired two specialist businesses — Otterize in Kubernetes security and Shape AI in database consolidation. Most recently, in April it acquired Ryft for the agentic AI security market.
Cyera is positioned to close a gap in cybersecurity as rapid adoption of gen AI and agentic AI within enterprises have outpaced current security controls. Demand for AI-powered security tools has surged as businesses combat sophisticated AI-powered threats at machine speeds.
A report by IDC noted that by 2030, up to 20 percent of large companies using advanced digital technologies will be negatively impacted by high-profile disruptions tied to poor AI agent governance. Noting that most organizations' data are not ready for AI, Gartner named agentic AI oversight as the top cybersecurity trend. Gartner forecasts that by 2028, more than half of enterprises will use AI security platforms.
Cyera claims to serve more than 400 enterprises, including Fortune 500 leaders in finance, healthcare, retail, technology and telecom. It's continued to deepen partnerships and integration with Microsoft and AWS.
With a talent race on in this field, Cyera recently started a program to help retain high-performing teams by offering employees an opportunity to sell a portion of their vested shares.
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