Israeli security startup Talon Cyber Security raises $26M seed round to protect against a new category of threats posed by distributed workforce

To protect employees from COVID-19, many enterprises rapidly shifted to make distributed work possible while maintaining business productivity. Forced to accelerate digital transformation initiatives, these changes led to gaps in visibility and security, ultimately playing into the hands of attackers. There were fundamental challenges that could not be addressed using traditional security solutions such as zero-trust models or VPN.

Enter Talon Cyber Security, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup that launched this year to provide cybersecurity solutions for a distributed workforce and the new category of threats posed by workforce flexibility. Talon is developing a first-of-its-kind cybersecurity technology that protects from the unique threats emerging in today’s era of distributed work.

Today, Talon announced it has secured $26 million in seed funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Team8, serial entrepreneur Zohar Zisapel, and leading cyber angel investors. Talon will use the fresh funding to further develop its technology and expand the development team.

Talon was founded by two proven entrepreneurs in the cybersecurity industry, CEO Ben-Noon and CTO Ohad Bobrov, both alumni of Unit 8200, Israel’s elite military technology and intelligence unit. Ben-Noon founded Argus, the global leader in automotive cybersecurity, which was sold to Continental in 2017 (estimated $430M).

Following the acquisition, he remained CEO of Argus and joined senior management at Continental, during which time Argus protected over 50 million vehicles. Bobrov founded Lacoon Mobile Security, a provider of security solutions for mobile phones, which was sold to Check Point in 2015 (estimated $100M), where he was appointed Vice President of SaaS, Mobility, and Endpoint Cyber Technologies.

Talon’s unique technology makes it possible to turn an organization’s security weaknesses into resilience against cyberattacks without compromising an employee’s privacy or productivity. Talon’s novel approach enables all employees, no matter the device they are using, to access their corporate resources in a secure way. By enabling workforce productivity and flexibility while safeguarding security, Talon allows organizations to operate and innovate with confidence. The market for cyber solutions to support distributed work is expected to reach $42 billion by 2026.

“Talon is solving a major problem created by recent changes in the workforce model,” said David Gussarsky, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. “The need for one comprehensive solution to enable workforce flexibility, without compromising security, has created a whole new market and a unique opportunity to become a game-changer in the cybersecurity industry.”

“Accelerated digitization is impacting the way enterprises operate. I hear from hundreds of organizations, across all industries, which are struggling to find the right balance between encouraging productivity and creativity among a distributed workforce while maintaining cyber defenses,” said Nadav Zafrir, co-founder and managing partner at Team8. “I am confident that Talon’s leadership team will deliver a ground-breaking solution for today’s unique cyber risk challenges.”

“The distributed workforce presents a host of new cybersecurity challenges and exposes both large and small organizations to new types of threats that can’t be solved using existing solutions,” said Ofer Ben-Noon, Talon Cyber Security CEO. “This unique challenge and opportunity led Ohad and me to embark on this exciting journey. Talon is entering the market to provide organizations with maximum flexibility, productivity, and visibility while protecting them against cyber attacks that are becoming more and more sophisticated.”