Nir Zuk’s New Venture Cylake Secures $45 Million to Protect Regulated Industries Barred From Public Cloud

Nir Zuk's Cylake raises $45M to build an AI-native security platform for regulated organizations that cannot use the public cloud for sovereignty reasons.

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 10, 2026, 7:10 AM EDT

Source: The information in this article was sourced from SecurityWeek

Cybersecurity Titans Align for New Sovereignty-Focused Startup

Cylake, a high-profile cybersecurity startup, officially launched last week following a successful $45 million seed funding round. The company boasts an impressive founding team led by CEO Nir Zuk, the visionary founder and long-time CTO of Palo Alto Networks. Joining Zuk are industry heavyweights Wilson Xu, former engineering VP at Palo Alto Networks, and Ehud (Udi) Shamir, co-founder of SentinelOne and a veteran security researcher. Rounding out the leadership is René Bonvanie, the former CMO of Palo Alto Networks. This concentration of veteran talent has positioned Cylake as one of the most anticipated entrants into the security market in years.

Addressing the "Public Cloud Gap" for Highly Regulated Sectors

The primary mission of Cylake is to bridge a significant gap in the modern security landscape: the reliance on public cloud infrastructure. While the majority of contemporary security platforms assume a dependency on cloud services for data processing and analysis, some of the world’s most sensitive institutions remain barred from the public cloud due to strict regulatory and national security requirements. Cylake’s platform is designed specifically for these organizations, offering a security solution that operates fully on-premises or within private clouds. By removing the public cloud dependency, Cylake aims to provide data-driven protection to sectors where data sovereignty is a legal mandate rather than a preference.

AI-Native Protection Under Total Operational Control

According to CEO Nir Zuk, the shift away from public cloud infrastructure changes the fundamental requirements of cybersecurity. The Cylake platform is advertised as an "AI-native" solution that works at scale without adding layers of fragmentation. Zuk emphasized that for many institutions today, the assumption that they can utilize the cloud no longer holds true. Cylake intends to deliver high-level protection and sophisticated data analysis directly under the client's operational control, ensuring that sensitive security data never leaves the organization's sovereign perimeter.