Cyera raises $400M in late-stage funding, pushing AI data security startup’s valuation to $9 billion

Cyera has raised $400 million in a late-stage round, lifting its valuation to $9 billion, the New York–based data security startup announced Thursday. Cyera’s latest funding round lands at a moment when data has become the quiet pressure point behind the AI boom.

The news comes just six months after the five-year-old startup raised $540 million. That figure marks a sharp jump from a $3 billion valuation in November 2024 to a $6 billion valuation just months later, reflecting how quickly enterprise spending is shifting toward tools that help keep sensitive information secure as AI adoption spreads across organizations.

The Series F round was led by funds managed by Blackstone, with returning investors Accel, Coatue, and Lightspeed Venture Partners taking part. With this raise, Cyera’s total capital tops $1.7 billion, placing it among the most heavily funded private companies in the data security space.

The company says the new capital will be used to extend its data and access platform into AI security, covering how AI is built, used, and controlled within large organizations. The effort spans employee-facing AI tools, where companies want staff to use copilots and third-party AI apps without creating shadow AI or insider misuse. It also extends to agentic AI, where teams are beginning to deploy autonomous agents and need visibility into how those systems behave, what they touch, and where guardrails should be set.

“Our goal with this funding is to extend our highly scalable data + access platform to address AI security across four key pillars,” Cyera said in a blog post.

Cyera is also targeting the fast-growing stack of homegrown AI applications. That means securing models, prompts, and data pipelines early in the build process, before custom AI tools reach production. On the defense side, the company is leaning into automation, using AI-driven security agents to help SecOps teams spot issues, investigate incidents, and respond at a pace that matches the speed of AI systems.

Cyera was founded in 2021 by CEO Yotam Segev and CTO Tamar Bar-Ilan, both alumni of Israel’s elite Talpiot program and former officers in the military’s cyber intelligence Unit 8200.

The company reports steep growth over a short period. Over the past 18 months, its Fortune 500 customer base climbed 353%, it entered 10 new markets, and its workforce doubled to nearly 800 employees worldwide. Since its inception, Cyera has raised $1.3 billion and seen its valuation climb twelvefold, Reuters reported.

That momentum comes as enterprises push deeper into generative AI, often before they have a clear picture of where sensitive data lives or how it moves across cloud and on-premise systems. Cyera’s software focuses on finding, classifying, and securing that data, giving security teams visibility into risks while helping meet regulatory demands that continue to tighten across regions.

“Across the board, we’re hearing the need for enterprises to push hard on AI, yet they must move fast without compromising security and control,” Segev said.

“Cyera’s focus on data security is the most critical capability the enterprise needs to adopt AI responsibly.”

A steady stream of high-profile cyberattacks and data leaks has heightened the urgency of that message. Financial losses tied to breaches continue to climb, and boards are paying closer attention to how data exposure can ripple through AI systems trained on sensitive information.

Cyera said the new capital will be allocated to product development, global expansion, and partnerships. For investors, the bet is straightforward: as AI spreads inside large organizations, data security is no longer a side concern. It sits at the center of whether those systems can be deployed at scale without incurring risks that outweigh the promise.