Six-month-old Israeli startup is bought by cyber unicorn Cyera for about $50 million

Genie Security’s two founders and five employees develop technology to detect efforts to leak sensitive data from employee devices, as they increasingly adopt generative AI tools

Six months after it was founded, Israeli startup Genie Security has been acquired to bolster cybersecurity unicorn Cyera’s AI data security platform as businesses increasingly adopt autonomous AI agents and need to secure their most sensitive information.

No financial details were confirmed, but sources close to the deal estimated the acquisition value at about $50 million. The deal was first published by Israeli financial daily Calcalist on Wednesday.

Genie Security was founded with five employees by CEO Nadav Noy, a graduate of the vaunted IDF intelligence unit 8200 and winner of the Israel Defense Prize; and CTO Noam Dotan, a graduate of the IDF’s Matzov information security unit. The two founders previously worked together at Israeli cybersecurity startup Legit Security before setting out six months ago to develop technology “to solve massive security challenges brought on by the rise of AI agents.”

The acquisition deal comes as companies are rapidly integrating autonomous assistants into existing software systems, business processes, and workflows, which open up data leakage risks. Agentic AI or virtual AI agents act similarly to smart assistants, using reasoning to make real-time decisions and complete complex tasks with minimal human input such as collating and analyzing vast amounts of data.

As part of day-to-day workflows, autonomous AI agents execute commands, modify files, and access sensitive company data without governance, oversight, or identity management.

Working under the radar over the past six months, Genie Security has been developing data loss prevention technology tools to protect and secure so-called end-user points or devices such as laptops, phones, and servers. The technology is tailored to identify attempts to leak sensitive information, whether through human actions or the use of generative AI tools.

Over the past couple of months, Genie Security raised about $3 million in funding led by Mensch Capital and Dynamic Loop. Among its angel investors is Wiz co-founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport.

Commenting on the deal, Cyera co-founder Yotam Segev said that the Genie “team brings immense technical and operational experience, allowing us to scale AI & data controls to the endpoint and enable a secure AI transformation.”

Cyera was founded in 2021 by Segev, CEO, and Tamar Bar-Ilan, CTO, who met during their Israeli army service, during which they built and ran the cloud security division for the IDF’s unit 8200.

Exposed to the challenges of securing data in the cloud, Segev and Bar-Ilan decided after their military service to develop and build a unified data security platform to provide businesses and organizations with a complete view of where their data “lives, how it’s used, and how to keep it safe.”

Cyera, which was last valued at $9billion, has been on an acquisition spree over the past two years. In April, Cyera announced a deal to buy Israeli startup Ryft after snapping up local startups Otterize and Shape AI in June, and Trail Security in 2024.

Cyera’s data and AI platform is deployed by 20 percent of Fortune 500 companies operating in the areas of financial services, retail, media & entertainment, healthcare, technology, and global telecom, the firm said.