Blackstone-Led Funding Round Expands R&D and Partnerships to Address AI Threats
Michael Novinson (MichaelNovinson) •
January 8, 2026 Â Â
Jason Clark, chief strategy officer, Cyera (Image: Cyera)
A data security startup founded by a longtime Israeli Military Intelligence leader raised $400 million to address security challenges related to the growth of agentic AI.
The Blackstone-led Series F funding round will help New York-based Cyera evolve from its roots in data discovery and protection into the control plane for managing how AI interacts with sensitive data, said Chief Strategy Officer Jason Clark. Legacy security models built around user authentication and static permissions are fundamentally incompatible with autonomous, intent-driven agents, he said.
“This is really probably the biggest security hole and problem opportunity from a business standpoint, AI and agentic,” Clark told Information Security Media Group. “When you’ve got someone like a Blackstone who has a great brand, brings value and is not a traditional VC investor, it was kind of like, ‘Okay, that’s a hard one to say no to.’ And all of our existing investors were like, ‘Well, yeah, we’d love to put more in.'”
Cyera, founded in 2021, employs 1,128 people and has raised more than $1.7 billion in funding. The company inked a $9 billion valuation, 50% higher than the $6 billion valuation associated with Cyera’s $540 million Series E round that closed seven months ago. CEO Yotam Segev spent nearly a decade in the Israeli military before starting Cyera, where he rose to become head of Unit 8200’s cyber team (see: Why Cyera Is Eyeing a $400M Funding Round at a $9B Valuation).
Why Traditional Security Frameworks Fail to Defend AI Agents
Clark said the capital will accelerate product innovation, particularly in the AI and agentic AI security space. Secondly, the investment strengthens Cyera’s competitive moat, making it more difficult for new startups or legacy players to compete without investing hundreds of millions in catch-up efforts. Thirdly, Clark said the credibility and connections brought by Blackstone would help Cyera grow strategically.
“Many of our board members have sat on the boards of some of the other fastest-growing companies in history,” Clark said. “They’ve never seen anything with so many green blinking lights. When you start talking about the speed of acceleration, the brand recognition, the product maturity, the size and scale of customers that are adopting, there’s never been a data company before like this.”
Traditional security frameworks, which were designed around static logic and predictable behavior, are completely insufficient for AI agents capable of performing tasks with intent, context and evolving logic. Clark said new security models are required that can observe behavior, track deviation from intended use, flag anomalous actions, and ensure AI agents stay within their functional bounds.
“You’re looking at making sure that the right person, the right system, the right agent has the ability to continue to interpret, continue to leverage and continue to assemble that data,” Cyera Chief Trust Officer Lamont Orange told ISMG. “It’s also about the ability to trust the information, trust the results and trust that the information has been interpreted correctly.”
Cyera sees an opportunity to build a new kind of control plane for AI and data that governs access, use and behavior across all AI systems in the enterprise, Clark said. That work requires hiring experts in data science, behavior analysis, identity systems and cybersecurity who understand both the enterprise software landscape and the unique threats posed by agentic AI, Clark said.
“Should these agents be able to do everything, see everything you see?” Clark asked. “There should be limiting factors, but there’s nothing invented in the data to ever do that.”
How Cyera Plans to Take On AI Risk
AI risk is fundamentally an access problem of understanding who or what is accessing data, why and under what context, Clark said. He said Cyera’s investment will focus on fusing behavioral analysis with identity and data into a unified framework that can detect anomalies and enforce granular, purpose-driven access (see: Cyera Doubles Valuation With $540M Raise for AI Data Defense).
“You got all these agents. You’ve got all this AI,” Clark said. “But how do you control what data goes in and what data comes out, and what’s accessing it? Those are two sides of the same coin.”
Cyera wants to be a neutral, interoperable control plane that works across platforms, clouds and AI models, offering observability, governance and protection in ways that legacy vendors simply cannot. It’s also aiming to become a central player in AI observability, with deep integrations with partners including Microsoft, AWS and Cohesity to support the company’s goal of universal applicability, Clark said.
“We want to be multi-product, multi-app, multi-cloud, multi-everything,” Clark said. “We want to play and be Switzerland and be friends with everybody, and be the brain of all data and of all AI.”
Cyera expects to triple its revenue over the next year, with the goal of reaching $1 billion in annual revenue, followed by an eventual target of $3 billion, Clark said. The company intends to increase its footprint across sectors and geographies, with Europe expected to account for at least 25% of total revenue in the near term. Cyera also wants customers to use three or more of its product offerings.
“You want customers on three or more of your products,” Clark said. “At that point you’re a platform, right? You want them using the whole platform.”