Kameleon Security adds investment from Xilinx for hardware cybersecurity

Israeli semiconductor startup Kameleon Security, which has a hardware approach to computing cybersecurity, has announced that it has secured an investment from Xilinx, a semiconductor company based in California. The companies have previously partnered to create the industry’s first proactive Security Processing Unit (ProSPU), but the amount of the round was undisclosed. This round of investment also includes funding from existing investors State of Mind Ventures and J-Ventures.

“Our roadmap toward a unified hardware security infrastructure represents a paradigm shift in how cybersecurity is traditionally done,” said Jorge Myszne, co-founder and CEO of Kameleon. “Our collaboration with Xilinx brings valuable resources, guidance, and expertise in the data center and server market that will allow us to scale our development of the ProSPU and further our goal of creating a holistic and proactive cyber protection foundation that can scale across markets.”

Preventing server cyberattacks means that establishing a root of trust (RoT) is required from the first boot process. This RoT can extend the chain of trust throughout the system’s lifecycle, meaning that each layer in the application stack can be checked against the RoT and confirm its authenticity. Kameleon’s ProSPU already protects the system at boot and through RoT, in adherence with Open Compute Project (OCP) security standards. Its ProSPU’s features will be featured at the OCP Global Summit this year in November, including remote authentication of Xilinx’s peripherals.

“We see a lot of opportunity for Kameleon’s unique approach to dedicated security infrastructure,” said Sina Soltani, vice president of worldwide sales, Data Center Group at Xilinx. “We are excited to be working closely with Kameleon to bring the solution to market.”

Nir Adler, general partner at State of Mind Ventures, added how “cloud is redefining network and application security in a way that only secured infrastructure can assure business continuity. Kameleon’s rare combination of cybersecurity and semiconductor expertise and talent is a huge differentiator on the way to pioneer a new hardware security category. Xilinx investment and collaboration is a strong signal of Kameleon’s product-market fit and I look forward to seeing it come to market.”

Kameleon Security was founded in 2019 by Myszne and has developed the first proSPU to enforce security throughout a system’s life cycle, targeting data centers, managed computers, servers, and cloud computing systems. It is currently expanding its team in Israel. Xilinx was acquired by AMD for $35 billion last year.