Israeli cybersecurity startup Torq raises $140M at $1.2B valuation to expand AI security platform

Israeli cybersecurity startup Torq said Sunday it raised $140 million in a Series D round, pushing its valuation to $1.2 billion and cementing its status as a unicorn. The funding comes as enterprises race to automate security operations and offload repetitive threat response work to AI.

The round was led by Merlin Ventures, a cybersecurity-focused fund with deep ties across U.S. commercial and government markets. Existing backers Evolution Equity Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Notable Capital, Insight Ventures Partners, and Greenfield Partners all returned. With this raise, Torq has now secured $332 million since launching in 2020.

Torq Joins Unicorn Club With $140M Raise to Reinvent Cybersecurity Operations

Torq built its name by betting early on agentic AI for security operations centers, or SOCs. Instead of relying on legacy SOAR and SIEM tools, the company uses autonomous AI agents to investigate alerts, triage threats, and trigger responses with little human input. The goal: free security teams from endless manual tasks.

“This funding accelerates our mission to define and dominate the AI SOC market,” said Ofer Smadari, CEO and co-founder, Torq. “We are moving far beyond the constraints of legacy SOAR and SIEM, harnessing the Agentic AI Era to deliver outcomes our customers rely on.”

That vision is already playing out inside some of the world’s biggest companies. Torq counts Marriott, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Uber, and Virgin Atlantic as customers. Fortune 100 firms are now using Torq’s AI agents for investigations and incident response inside their SOCs.

Smadari says growth in 2025 has been driven by what he calls “bottom-up” adoption. Security teams deploy Torq agents themselves without heavy professional services. Those agents now handle millions of tasks autonomously every day across large enterprises, turning Torq from a niche tool into a core SOC platform.

One example comes from Valvoline. “Within 48 hours of deployment, our team was using Torq’s AI SOC Platform for automating phishing triage, accelerating alert handling, and reducing response times across the board,” said Corey Kaemming, CISO, Valvoline. “Analysts reclaimed hours of time, containment actions became automatic, and the security team evolved from reactive responders to proactive strategists.”

The new funding will fuel two key priorities: broader enterprise adoption and a significant push into U.S. federal and public-sector markets. That’s where Merlin Ventures plays a key role. The firm has spent nearly three decades helping companies sell to government agencies and navigate compliance hurdles such as FedRAMP certification.

“Our focus now is speed—accelerating go-to-market, expanding across commercial and government markets, and building the next global category leader in AI security operations,” said Shay Michel, managing partner at Merlin Ventures. “They’ve fused automation and human judgment into a new AI SOC Platform built for asymmetric threats and real-world scale.”

Torq has been sharpening its product edge as well. The company recently acquired RevRod, strengthening its multi-agent capabilities. Its platform now automates low-fidelity alerts, reducing investigation time by up to 90%. Human analysts step in only when threats prove real.

John White, CISO at Virgin Atlantic, says Torq has become his team’s central security layer. “Today, innovation stems from an AI-first approach, which Torq excels at. Torq is making our security operations simpler and more efficient, and providing us with complete coverage across our security stack. Torq is now our umbrella platform.”

With cyber threats growing louder and security teams stretched thin, Torq is betting that autonomy beats headcount. The company now protects hundreds of multinational enterprises across industries, including retail, aviation, telecom, and manufacturing.

And with $140 million in fresh capital and a powerful new backer in Merlin Ventures, Torq is setting its sights squarely on the next frontier: securing critical government infrastructure at scale.

Torq Founders