Iranian-born Israeli cyber pioneer Sanaz Yashar nets $40M for Zafran Security
Zafran, which has developed a risk and mitigation platform to pinpoint exploitable threats in organizations, has raised over $70 million in the past six months, with Sequoia Capital leading the latest round.
Even during a challenging security period, amid a slowdown in Israeli high-tech, the Israeli cyber industry continues to attract significant investments. The Israeli cyber startup Zafran Security, which has developed a risk and mitigation platform to pinpoint the ‘exploitable’ threats in the organization and to mitigate their risk by mobilizing existing security controls, has raised $40 million, Calcalist has learned. The funding round was led by Sequoia Capital's growth fund, with participation from all existing investors.
Full list of Israeli high-tech funding rounds in 2024
David Fischer, former chief revenue officer at Facebook and a partner with 01 Advisors, also joined the round. David is the son of Stanley Fischer, the former Governor of the Bank of Israel. This is Zafran Security's second fundraising round in six months. Prior to this round, Zafran had raised $30.5 million in Seed funding in March from leading investors, including Doug Leone of Sequoia, Gili Ra'anan of Cyberstarts, and NBA star Steph Curry’s Penny Jar Capital.
Zafran was founded in 2022 by Sanaz Yashar (CEO), Ben Seri (CTO) and Snir Havdala (CPO). The company has recruited 45 employees so far this year and plans to reach 100 new recruits in Israel and the U.S. by the end of the year.
Sanez, born in Tehran and immigrated to Israel in her youth, served for about 15 years in the IDF Intelligence Corps Unit 8200 and was discharged with the rank of major. She led cyber threat research and analysis groups at FireEye - Mandiant (acquired by Google) and took part in significant geopolitical investigations, including the investigation of the cyber attack on a central hospital in Israel, in which she collaborated with Snir and Ben.
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Snir served for about a decade in Unit 8200, where he won the Israel Defense Award and the Chief of Staff's Technology award, and was discharged with the rank of major. Ben served in Unit 81 and also won the Israel Defense Award.
Zafran’s platform connects to both vulnerability data and the organization’s security controls. It analyzes risk while taking into account controls’ efficacy as well as exploitability factors. The company’s Mitigation Knowledge-base designed to work seamlessly with EDR, firewalls, cloud tools, and more, enables organizations to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of their risk. Zafran Applicable Risk reflects whether vulnerabilities are exploitable or already mitigated by compensating controls, then proactively automates mitigations to eliminate the exploitation window.
Sequoia Capital's growth fund specializes in investing in fast-growing companies in advanced stages, helping them expand into new markets and boost revenue.
The 01 Advisors fund is a venture capital firm founded by former Facebook and Twitter executives, including David Fischer, Dick Costolo (former CEO of Twitter), and Adam Bain (former COO of Twitter). The fund focuses on investments in cutting-edge technologies and companies developing innovative solutions in software, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing.
