Cybersecurity startup Cylake has raised $45 million in seed funding to develop a security platform that runs entirely within customers’ own infrastructure. The investment round was led by venture capital firm Greylock.
Cylake focuses on organizations that cannot store their security data and analyses in public cloud environments. According to the company, there is a growing group of organizations that need to maintain complete control over their data due to regulations, security requirements, or operational risks. The platform is designed to enable AI-driven security without processing data outside the customer’s own infrastructure.
The company was founded by three experienced names from the cybersecurity sector. Nir Zuk, founder of Palo Alto Networks, is at the helm of the company. He worked for more than 20 years as chief technology officer and played an important role in the development of modern firewall technology. Co-founders Wilson Xu and Ehud Shamir also have a long track record. Xu worked at Palo Alto Networks for over ten years, where he led the engineering organization. Shamir co-founded SentinelOne and later worked as an engineer at Palo Alto Networks.
According to the founders, the next generation of cybersecurity must rely more heavily on artificial intelligence and a complete overview of data and context within organizations. Zuk argues that effective AI security is only possible when all relevant data is brought together in a single integrated environment. At the same time, he points out that some large organizations cannot use cloud-based security services. Cylake therefore wants to enable AI security within a fully controlled IT environment of the customer.
Data analysis without public cloud
The platform collects operational and security data from sources such as network infrastructure, endpoints, cloud workloads, and existing security tools. This information is brought together in a single data layer and analyzed locally using machine learning models and automated processes designed to detect anomalous patterns.
This approach differs from many security platforms that send telemetry to cloud-based analysis tools. By processing data locally, sensitive data remains within the organization’s infrastructure.
SiliconANGLE adds that the platform correlates events and telemetry from multiple systems to identify potential security incidents. The system can generate alerts and support security teams in their investigations by analyzing relationships between events and activity patterns.
According to the company, the technology is primarily intended for organizations where data transfer or external processing is restricted. These include government agencies, critical infrastructure operators, and regulated industries such as finance and healthcare.
Greylock partner Asheem Chandna has known Zuk for decades. He says they first met in the 1990s when Check Point Software was still a small company and that their collaboration has since spanned multiple ventures. According to Chandna, the next generation of cybersecurity must be designed from the ground up around artificial intelligence and leverage a complete picture of data and context within organizations.
With the new funding, Cylake aims to further develop its platform for organizations that want to deploy AI-driven security without relinquishing control of their data.