Tel Aviv-based cloud and AI security startup Upwind has closed a $300 million Series C round at a $3.8 billion valuation, more than doubling its worth since a $250 million Series B in January and confirming investor appetite for runtime-first cloud native application protection platforms (CNAPPs).
Bessemer and TCV lead a $2.3B valuation jump in eight months
The round is co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners and TCV, with participation from Craft Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Greylock, Cyberstarts, Leaders Fund, Alta Park Capital and existing backer Penny Jar Capital. Upwind was valued at $800-$900 million in late 2024 and $1.5 billion in January before Salesforce Ventures re-invested at $1.6 billion in the spring, taking total capital raised to more than $730 million in under three years.
Runtime-first CNAPP for the AI era
Upwind was founded in 2022 by Amiram Shachar, Liran Polak, Lavi Ferdman and Tal Zuri, the team behind Spot.io, which NetApp bought for $450 million in 2020. Its platform correlates live workload telemetry with static scans to prioritize vulnerabilities that are actually exploitable, reducing alert noise across CSPM, CIEM, DSPM, container and Kubernetes security, and cloud detection and response.
AI security posture and prompt-injection detection
Over the past year Upwind has extended the platform to AI workloads, working with NVIDIA on prompt-injection and data-exfiltration research and reporting roughly 95% precision at detecting malicious prompts targeting large language models while maintaining real-time performance. Customers include Siemens, Peloton, Roku and Nubank.
The mega-round adds Upwind to a cluster of runtime cloud and AI-native security deals, alongside Horizon3.ai's $250M Series E at $2B for AI-vs-AI autonomous pentesting, OpenAI's $1B Daybreak commitment to frontline cyber defenders and Guardio's $40M at $1.1B for consumer AI security.
Reporting based on coverage from CTech by Calcalist, Bloomberg, SC Media and SiliconANGLE.