Israel’s Cato Networks Raises $77M For Its Cloud Security Platform

Israeli cloud security provider Cato Networks, the company behind the world’s first SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) platform, announced Tuesday they had raised $77 million in a funding round.

The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with the participation of Aspect Ventures, Greylock Partners, Singtel Innov8, U.S. Venture Partners (USVP), and Israeli information technology entrepreneur and investor Shlomo Kramer, who is the co-founder of Israeli cybersecurity companies Check Point and Imperva, as well as Cato Networks.

The investment brings the company’s total funding raised to over $200 million to date.

Founded in 2015, Cato Networks provides a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platform that connects and secures the entire enterprise – remote users, sites, applications, and clouds with a global cloud service. Using it, customers optimize connectivity to on-premises and cloud applications, enable secure branch Internet access everywhere, and integrate cloud data centers and mobile users into the network with a zero-trust architecture.

Cato is the first true implementation of Gartner’s Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) framework that describes an architecture that converges SD-WAN and network security for all enterprise “edges” into the cloud. Cato was recognized as a “Sample Vendor” in the SASE category of Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Enterprise Networking, 2019.

“This round of financing is a testament to the unique value Cato delivers to customers even under the most difficult business conditions. The global pandemic has disrupted business-as-usual and underscored the need for an adaptable infrastructure,” said Shlomo Kramer, CEO and co-founder of Cato Networks. “While many companies struggle to enable work-from-home remote access to all employees, Cato customers only had to flip-a-switch. That’s the power of one converged global network and security platform enabling enterprises to be ready for whatever’s next.”