A new cybersecurity startup, Cylake, has emerged with a $45 million seed raise led by Greylock and other technology investors, as the company announced on Thursday.
Cylake is positioning itself around a clear pitch: an AI-driven, data-led security platform that can run without depending on public cloud infrastructure, a design choice aimed at organizations that need full data sovereignty and on-premises protection, particularly in highly regulated environments.
Who’s behind Cylake?
Cylake was founded by Nir Zuk, along with Wilson Xu and Ehud (Udi) Shamir.
Zuk is best known for founding Palo Alto Networks in 2005 and serving as its chief technology officer for more than two decades.
Xu previously worked on building Palo Alto Networks over more than a decade, including leading engineering teams, while Shamir was among the founders of SentinelOne in 2013.
What Cylake says is broken in security today
Cylake says its strategy rests on two core principles.
First, the startup argues that the next wave of AI-driven cybersecurity needs a holistic view of an organization’s infrastructure, bringing data and context from multiple layers into a unified protection platform. The company’s view is that fragmented tools and partial data can leave gaps that attackers exploit.
Second is data sovereignty. Cylake’s bet is that many of the world’s largest and most heavily regulated organizations can’t rely on security systems that require public cloud services because of regulatory or security constraints.
Cloud-independent, by design
Cylake says its platform is being built to run entirely on-premises or in private clouds, so organizations can retain full operational control while still using advanced protection capabilities.
In a statement cited in the report, Zuk framed the company’s mission around institutions where “maintaining full control over data and operations is not optional,” adding: “Cybersecurity is constantly evolving, and sometimes new challenges demand completely new approaches.”
Greylock partner Asheem Chandna said the next generation of cybersecurity will increasingly depend on AI and autonomous systems capable of analyzing large volumes of data and context, and described Cylake as focused on a segment where security must operate under full control to match regulatory and operational realities.
Cylake said it will initially work with a limited group of development partners while building out the platform. The company expects commercial availability in early 2027.
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