Upwind, a cloud security company based in Israel and the United States, raises $100 Million

Upwind, a cloud security company based in the United States and Israel, announced on Monday that it had raised $100m from private investors to meet increasing demand as businesses move their data rapidly to cloud storage.

Craft Ventures led the round, with new investors TCV, Alta Park Capital, and existing investors Greylock, Cyberstarts and Leaders Fund as well as Sheva founded by former NBA star Omri Casspi.

The total funding for the company since its inception in 2022 is $180 million. These funds are mainly used to expand in the U.S.A. and Europe.

Upwind didn't disclose its valuation, but a source involved in the deal stated that the company founded in 2022 was valued at $900 million today, which is triple what it was a year earlier.

Amiram Shachar, CEO of the company, said that it does not need immediate funding. He added that cloud security is in high demand and therefore it was crucial to accelerate growth.

Shachar stated that only 15% of all global workloads are now in the cloud. Due to this expected growth, "you will see cloud computing grow over the next decade and double the market capital every few years," he said.

The CEO stated that his main focus is to grow the company into one the largest cyber firms. This may eventually lead to an IPO. He said that the market was "so large" that it would allow for four or five big cloud security companies.

Shachar was a former officer of the Israeli military's cloud unit and ran its cloud division. He named his company after a technique of upwind windsurfing. (Reporting and editing by Louise Heavens, Jan Harvey, and Steven Scheer)

(source: Reuters)