Cybersecurity Company Cato Networks Raises $77 Million

Israeli cybersecurity company Cato Networks Ltd. has raised $77 million in a round led by existing investor California-headquartered Lightspeed Venture Partners, the former announced Tuesday. Existing investors Aspect Ventures, Greylock Partners, Singtel Innov8 Ventures Pte. Ltd., and USVP Management Company LLC, also participated in the round, bringing Cato Networks’ total funding raised to date to $202 million.

Cato Networks, which has over 300 enterprise customers, according to company statements, provides software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) security services. The Tel Aviv-headquartered company was founded in 2015 by Gur Shatz and Shlomo Kramer, who is also a co-founder of firewall pioneer Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., cybersecurity company Imperva Inc., and Trusteer Inc.

Cato Networks intends to use the funds to hire more people, Kramer said in a Tuesday interview with Calcalist. Currently, Cato Networks employs a team of 200 people, 120 of whom are based in Israel, he said.

The round was completed over the past few weeks during the pandemic, Kramer said. All of Cato Networks’ employees have shifted to remote work from home due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and the company does not have plans for layoffs, Kramer said.