{"id":220169,"date":"2026-07-23T19:09:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T19:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/220169\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T19:09:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T19:09:14","slug":"cisco-backs-israeli-cyber-startup-led-by-iranian-born-security-veteran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/220169\/","title":{"rendered":"Cisco backs Israeli cyber startup led by Iranian-born security veteran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israeli-founded startup Zafran Security, the developer of an AI-native cyber threat exposure management platform, has landed a strategic investment from US tech giant Cisco Systems Inc.<\/p>\n

The US maker of networking software and hardware has invested in Zafran through its venture capital arm Cisco Investments, the startup said late on Wednesday. The size of the investment was not disclosed but is estimated to increase Zafran\u2019s previously announced $130 million total funding to more than $140 million, according to Hebrew press reports.<\/p>\n

Cisco Investments joins existing investors including Sequoia Capital, Cyberstarts, Menlo Ventures, PSP Growth, Vintage Investment Partners, and American Express Ventures.<\/p>\n

Zafran was founded in 2022 by Iranian-born cybersecurity research veteran Sanaz Yashar, CEO, Snir Havdala,\u00a0 and Ben Seri. The startup is the developer of a risk and mitigation platform that pledges to find and fix software security threats within hours, instead of weeks. The platform adapts, coordinates and synchronizes an organization\u2019s existing arsenal of security tools to defend against cyber attacks.<\/p>\n

Cisco Investments vice president Janey Hoe said the investment in Zafran is geared to \u201ccreate a more unified, intelligence-driven security ecosystem that empowers our customers to better discover vulnerabilities and reduce risks in their infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSign up for the Tech Israel Daily
\n\t\t\tand never miss Israel’s top tech stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAs the threat landscape grows increasingly complex in the AI era, the challenge for security teams has extended from identifying vulnerabilities to effectively orchestrating their remediation,\u201d said Hoe.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tIranian-born Sanaz Yashar is the co-founder and CEO of cybersecurity startup Zafran Security (Courtesy of Eric Sultan).<\/p>\n

Zafran\u2019s platform uses AI and automation technology to manage threat exposure and mitigation as AI accelerates the speed and sophistication of developers and bad actors alike to find software flaws. One of the main challenges facing businesses is that attackers weaponize critical security flaws much faster than they can patch them, Cisco cautioned in a recent blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2025, the median time it took companies to patch a critical vulnerability rose to 43 days, up from 32 days in 2024, according to Verizon\u2019s annual data breach report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOrganizations have made enormous investments in cybersecurity over the past decade. The opportunity now is to make those investments work together,\u201d said Yashar. \u201cAI has fundamentally changed how attackers operate, increasing the speed, scale and sophistication of exploitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe built Zafran to be the nerve center that helps organizations understand exploitability, identify where to act first, and mobilize the security controls they already have to reduce risk before exploitation occurs,\u201d Yashar said.<\/p>\n

Yashar served in the IDF\u2019s elite cybersecurity intelligence unit 8200 for 15 years after fleeing with her family to Israel from Tehran at the age of 17. She has previously held senior roles at cyber threat detection firms FireEye, Mandiant and Cybereason, investigating Russian and Iranian state-sponsored attacks.<\/p>\n

In May, Cisco announced the purchase of Israeli cybersecurity startup Astrix Security, marking the tech giant\u2019s 20th acquisition made in recent years. The US firm has R&D centers in Caesarea, Netanya and Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\tWe can’t do this work alone.\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident \u2013 ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded \u2013 I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.<\/p>\n

There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.<\/p>\n

As a Times of Israel reporter, I\u2019m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit\u2019s. But my colleagues and I can’t do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Stav Levaton, military reporter<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tYes, I’ll join\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tYes, I’ll join\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\tYou’re a dedicated reader\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWe\u2019re really pleased that you\u2019ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month. \n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we started the Times of Israel – to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.<\/p>\n

So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven\u2019t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.<\/p>\n

For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.<\/p>\n

Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tJoin Our Community\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tJoin Our Community\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israeli-founded startup Zafran Security, the developer of an AI-native cyber threat exposure management platform, has landed a strategic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[10279,18805,7059,63446,19802,54068,34,37,42301,34222,63447],"class_list":["post-220169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-ai","tag-cisco","tag-cyber-threat","tag-cybersecurity-risk","tag-funding","tag-investments-in-israel","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-israeli-cybersecurity","tag-israeli-startups","tag-technology-in-israel"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116970872688411732","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}