Cider Security founder nets $28M in Seed funding for stealth cyber startup
Less than two years after selling Cider to Palo Alto Networks in a $300 million deal, Guy Flechter has raised a significant sum for his new cybersecurity project named Sola Security. Investors include S Capital, S32, and Michael Moritz
Cyber startup Sola Security has completed an impressive $28 million Seed round, Calcalist has learned. This is the first fundraising round for the young cyber company, which was established only a few months ago and is still in stealth mode.
Full list of Israeli high-tech funding rounds in 2024
The company is the second startup of entrepreneur Guy Flechter, who previously sold Cider Security, which he founded with Daniel Krivelevich, to Palo Alto Networks in an impressive exit valued at $300 million. Cider was only two years old at the time of the sale and had raised just $38 million. However, shortly after the deal, Cider had to lay off a third of its approximately 90 employees as part of the integration process with Palo Alto, the American cyber giant founded by Nir Zuk, which today employs about a thousand workers in its Israeli development center.
In retrospect, Flechter and Krivelevich's exit improved, as $100 million of the $300 million was paid in Palo Alto shares, the value of which has since doubled.
The quick sale then enabled VC Glilot Capital, the first and significant investor in Cider, to return all of its third Seed fund. Four months ago, Flechter left Palo Alto, where he served as Chief AppSec Officer, to establish the new startup.
Flechter has been active in the local cyber industry for two decades. He started his career in the cyber unit of the Israeli Air Force and later served in senior positions in Israeli high-tech companies, including LivePerson and AppsFlyer.
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Sola’s fundraising was led by the venture capital fund S Capital, founded by Haim Sadger and Aya Peterburg, and they were joined by well-known investor Michael Moritz and the S32 fund, which comprises Google veterans. Moritz, who was a partner for four decades at Sequoia Capital, one of the largest and leading venture capital funds in the world, was nicknamed the "Michael Jordan" of the industry throughout his career there. He was among the first investors in companies such as Google, PayPal, Yahoo, and Nvidia. Moritz recently visited Israel on a solidarity visit, meeting with the country's president, Isaac Herzog, and with abductees who returned from Gaza. He also met with several entrepreneurs through Sadger and Peterburg, who worked with him in the past at Sequoia. The direct investment that Moritz is now making in Sola is unusual, as it is an investment from his personal money and not through a fund.
At this early stage, Sola does not yet have a product, only a direction for the development of a new cyber technology that has yet to be revealed. Cider, Flechter's previous company, developed a platform that provided a unified view of the entire engineering ecosystem, providing security teams with an understanding and comprehensive view of the technologies, systems, and processes unique to every engineering environment.
