The Wiz effect: Israeli cybersecurity is entering a new era of scale

It is early 2026, and the Israeli cybersecurity sector is currently experiencing a “second wave” of hyper-growth. With the dust of the $32B Wiz acquisition in 2025 still in the air, it is already clear that last year’s momentum hasn’t slowed down. If anything, things are heating up, with investors flocking to AI-driven platforms and driving record-breaking early-stage valuations.

Shattering the glass ceiling

In the fast-moving scene of Israeli high-tech, the year 2025 will be remembered for a single, seismic event: Google’s $32B acquisition of Wiz. This deal didn’t just break records, it shifted the gravity of the cybersecurity market, sparking what industry insiders are calling a “cyber frenzy.”

For years, the ambition of Israeli cybersecurity entrepreneurs and their venture capital backers seemed to have an invisible ceiling. A $200M–$500M acquisition by a U.S. tech giant was celebrated as a win, a solid return where innovative Israeli technologies became tuck-in features for larger platforms. Examples include Flow Security, acquired by CrowdStrike in 2024 for an estimated $200M, and Eureka Security, acquired by Tenable for a similar amount. While some companies reached higher valuations, such as Snyk (a Citi Ventures portfolio company) and Aqua, growth investors often believed Israeli security startups were optimized for quick exits rather than long-term scale.

Then came Wiz. Founded in 2020 by veterans of Israel’s elite Unit 8200, Wiz reached $100M in annual recurring revenue faster than any startup in history. By the time Google signed the all-cash deal in early 2025, Wiz had raised roughly $1.9B and was on a path toward $1B in ARR.

The transaction proved that an Israeli cyber startup could become a foundational pillar of the global digital stack, not just a niche tool. The “Wiz Effect” recalibrated investor risk tolerance, unlocking larger checks at earlier stages in pursuit of true category leaders capable of multi-billion-dollar outcomes.

The new benchmark: Platformization

Today, the investment narrative is squarely focused on platforms. Investors are aggressively backing companies that can centralize the fragmented security stack.

This shift is reflected in the soaring valuations of companies like Cyera, which recently reached a $9B valuation after a $400M funding round, and Torq, which joined the unicorn club at a $1.2B valuation following a $140M Series D.

The rationale is straightforward. CISOs face constant alert fatigue and the burden of managing dozens of disconnected tools. The demand is for a single pane of glass.

This has fueled a wave of “Blue and White” consolidation, where Israeli scale-ups such as Armis and Cato Networks are acquiring smaller startups to assemble full security super-platforms. The market is no longer chasing the next $200M feature. It is hunting for the next $10B platform.

The next frontier: Agentic cyber

In the race to build the next dominant platform, investors are increasingly focused on agentic cyber. This shift moves the industry from tools that merely alert to AI agents that can act.

Unlike traditional automation built on rigid scripts, agentic AI, pioneered by companies like Mate Security, relies on autonomous agents that understand context, make decisions, and execute complex remediation tasks, augmenting and sometimes replacing human operators.

The investment logic is grounded in reality. AI-driven cyberattacks now evolve faster than human defenders can respond. Agentic cyber promises an autonomous SOC, a tireless digital workforce that can triage, investigate, and neutralize threats in seconds.

For investors, the upside is clear: software-level scalability paired with labor-level impact. In the wake of the Wiz revolution, this category could define the next generation of cybersecurity decacorns.