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Japanese investment giant SoftBank co-led a $ 400 million investment in Israeli cybersecurity firm Claroty, a software maker to defend factories and industrial facilities from cybersecurity attacks, a joint announcement said on Wednesday. .
SoftBank’s operations in Israel are headed by former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, who resigned from the security agency post in June after more than five years of service. As part of the investment, Cohen will join Claroty’s board of directors.
The new investment comes six months after Claroty raised $ 140 million, which the company then hailed as the “biggest investment ever†in the industrial cybersecurity sector.
Claroty also announced an agreement to acquire Israeli cybersecurity startup Medigate, focused on securing connected medical devices within healthcare provider networks, as it continues its mission of “securing all cyber-physical systems. (CPS) in industrial, healthcare and enterprise environments – the Extended Internet of Things (XIoT).
Company CEO Yaniv Vardi said on Wednesday that “by combining the deep domain expertise and specialized technologies of Claroty and Medigate into a single platform, we will take a giant leap in our mission to secure the constantly expanding universe of XIoT for every connected organization.
“Our vision is to protect the cyber world and cyber-physical systems in every organization from critical infrastructure like oil and gas, automotive and life sciences, and now healthcare. We want to provide a complete solution for everyone, â€Vardi told The Times of Israel in a telephone interview.
Former Mossad leader Yossi Cohen attends the Jerusalem Post conference, held in Jerusalem on October 12, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
In these industries, “when data is at risk, people are at risk. If you look at the different verticals of manufacturing and industry, people are in danger. Hospitals are the number one vertical with the number of attacks on the rise – 82% of hospitals reported being attacked, “in the past 18 months or so, Vardi said, citing meditate research. “It’s a vertical that is under attack and we wanted to cover this world.”
“We envision a future where the cyber and physical worlds securely connect to support our lives, and with the strong support of some of the world’s largest technology investors, we have the resources we need to make that vision happen. a reality, â€he added.
Benny Porat, co-founder and chief technology officer of Claroty, told The Times of Israel that the healthcare sector faces cybersecurity challenges very similar to those of the industrial sector. “They have the same risks and the same problems, and the solution is right for them.”
Porat said that Claroty is an industry leader in cybersecurity, and since Medigate “are experts in their field, it was much more efficient for our customers to deliver these solutions organically.”
He described the acquisition as “more like a merger – the idea is to have a unified product for these industries”.
Claroty was already working with leading companies such as Pfizer in the pharmaceutical industry and GM in the automotive industry. The company had said it previously helped Pfizer secure its COVID-19 vaccine supply chain in its race to meet unprecedented global demand for the jab last year.
Porat said the acquisition of Medigate will now allow Claroty to expand its solutions to Pfizer’s labs and R&D operations, in addition to the manufacturing side.
Cohen said in a statement that “as digital transformation initiatives drive the critical physical systems we rely on for even the most basic human needs, securing those systems is ultimately about mitigating risk to life. human.
“Claroty’s technology addresses a high-stakes issue by enabling secure digital transformation, and we look forward to partnering with the team on their journey to protect the critical infrastructure that is the foundation of the AI ​​revolution. Cohen added.
The new investment brings Claroty’s total funding to date to $ 635 million, “making it the best-funded cybersecurity company in industrial, healthcare, and enterprise IoT.” [internet of things] sectors, â€he said in a statement on Wednesday.
The round also included existing investors from Claroty, Bessemer Venture Partners, French multinational energy company Schneider Electric, ISTARI, a global cybersecurity platform created by Singapore-based investment firm Temasek, and Israeli cybersecurity foundry Team8.
In this archive photo from November 9, 2020, people walk past a SoftBank store in Tokyo. (AP / Koji Sasahara, file)
Claroty was founded in 2014 by Amir Zilberstein, President of Porat, and Galina Antova, Director of Business Development.
Its sales teams are in the United States, with technical and product teams based in Israel. The company also has employees in Europe, Singapore and Australia.
