Cato Networks Ltd. is a

Tel Aviv, Israel Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

-based network security company that develops

Secure Access Service Edge A secure access service edge (SASE) (also secure access secure edge) is technology used to deliver wide area network (WAN) and security controls as a cloud computing service directly to the source of connection (user, device, Internet of things (I ...

(SASE) technology, which combines enterprise communication and security capabilities into a single cloud-based platform. The company was founded in 2015. After an October 2021 funding round, the company was a tech unicorn valued at $2.5 billion.

History

Cato Networks was founded in 2015 in Tel Aviv, Israel by

Shlomo Kramer Shlomo Kramer (; born 1966), is an Israeli information technology entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder of cyber-security companies Check Point and Imperva, as well as Cato Networks, a cloud-based network security provider. As of Ja ...

, co-founder of Checkpoint and

Imperva Imperva, Inc. is an American cyber security software and services company which provides protection to enterprise data and application software. The company is headquartered in San Mateo, California. French multinational Thales Group acquired the ...

, and Gur Shatz, a co-founder of networking company

Incapsula Imperva Incapsula is an American cloud-based application delivery platform. It uses a global content delivery network to provide web application security, DDoS mitigation, content caching, application delivery, load balancing and failover serv ...

. Cato was initially funded with a $20 million Series A from

U.S. Venture Partners U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) is a venture capital investment firm specializing in early-stage ventures in enterprise software, cybersecurity, consumer, e-commerce, healthcare, and IT-enabled healthcare services. The venture capital partnership is ...

and Aspect Ventures. Kramer became CEO, and Shatz became president and COO. It secured a Series B round of $50 million in September. The company officially launched in February 2016. Its first products were designed to protect customers' WAN connections and mobile devices with next-generation firewalling, URL filtering, application control, VPN access, and more services. In June 2018, the company added threat hunting capabilities to its networking service. In 2019, the company secured a $55 million Series C funding round. In April 2020, the company raised $77 million in a Series D. In November, the company announced a $130 million Series E funding round, led by return investors Lightspeed Partners, with participation from

Greylock Partners Greylock Partners is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1965, with committed capital of over $3.5 billion under management. The firm focuses on early-stage companies in consumer and enterprise software. History Greylock wa ...

Aspect Capital Aspect Capital is a London-based investment manager that applies a systematic and quantitative approach to investment management. According to the Financial Times, Aspect uses "technology and complex mathematical models to power computers that ...

, Singaporean fund

Singtel Singapore Telecommunications Limited, trading as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate, the country's principal fixed-line operator and one of the four major mobile network operators operating in the country. Overview T ...

's subsidiary Innov8, and hedge fund

Coatue Management Coatue is an American technology-focused investment management firm led by founder and portfolio manager Philippe Laffont. Coatue invests in both public and private markets, with a focus on technology, media, telecommunications, as well as the c ...

. The investment reportedly valued the company at over $1 billion, making it a tech unicorn. In June 2021, the company launched a new version of its managed detection and response (MDR) platform, used to detect security threats on its network. In October, the company announced it had raised $200 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with the participation of existing investors Greylock, Acrew Capital, Coatue, Singtel Innov8, and CEO Kramer. In February 2022, the company added

cloud access security broker A cloud access security broker (CASB) (sometimes pronounced cas-bee) is on-premises or cloud based software that sits between cloud service users and cloud applications, and monitors all activity and enforces security policies. A CASB can offer se ...

(CASB) capabilities to protect cloud applications.

Products

Cato Networks develops a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platform, which combines

SD-WAN A Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) is a wide area network that uses software-defined networking technology, such as communicating over the Internet using overlay tunnels which are encrypted when destined for internal organization locat ...

, managed security service and global backbone services into a cloud-based service offering. Its products are designed to help IT staff manage network security for distributed workforces accessing resources across the

wide area networks A wide area network (WAN) is a telecommunications network that extends over a large geographic area. Wide area networks are often established with leased telecommunication circuits. Businesses, as well as schools and government entities, use ...

(WANs), cloud and Internet that connects them. The company's Cato SASE Cloud platform supports more than 73 points of presence in over 150 countries.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://catonetworks.com/ Computer security companies Computer security software companies Software companies established in 2015 Israeli brands Software companies of Israel Companies based in Tel Aviv 2015 establishments in Israel