Former US treasurer Mnuchin leads $275 million funding in Israeli Cybereason

US-Israeli cybersecurity firm Cybereason, which uses behavioral analytics to discover threats, said it has raised $275 million in financing to increase its operations and the sale of its artificial-intelligence based software.

The funding was led by Liberty Strategic Capital, with additional backing provided by Irving Investors, certain funds advised by Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC, and Softbank Vision Fund 2. Liberty Strategic Capital is the private equity firm set up earlier this year by former US Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin. Cybereason is the fund’s first investment.

The latest round of investment “triples” the Israeli firm’s valuation, the statement said. Industry sources estimated that the latest funding round brings the valuation of Cybereason to over $3 billion.

The latest funding follows $389 million raised in prior funding by the nine-year old firm, from Softbank Group, CRV, Spark Capital and Lockheed Martin, the company said in a statement.

“Cybereason is fast becoming the global leader in cyber defense technology, and we could not be more pleased to make this extraordinary innovator the first addition to Liberty Strategic Capital’s portfolio,” said Mnuchin, founder and managing partner of Liberty Strategic Capital.

“Cybereason has established itself as a visionary in prevention, detection and response, and Liberty Strategic Capital is excited to partner with the Cybereason team in their cutting-edge work to defend critical information networks, businesses, and governments around the world against the growing danger of cyberattacks. We are confident in Cybereason’s ability to deliver a superior product to customers and provide best-in-class critical infrastructure defense,” Mnuchin said.

Mnuchin will join the Cybereason board of directors, and Liberty’s senior adviser, General Joseph Dunford (Ret.), will join Cybereason’s advisory board. Dunford served as chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff  in 2015-2019.

“Over the past year, we’ve experienced hypergrowth across the globe as defenders recognize that ending advanced attacks isn’t possible using solutions that rely on meaningless alerts and human intervention,” said Lior Div, the CEO and co-founder of Cybereason.

“Existing – even ‘next-gen’ – solutions are fundamentally flawed, creating the dynamic we have today where the defender is constantly struggling to keep pace with attackers. Unlike our prolific alert-generating competitors, Cybereason takes an approach that enables defenders to end malicious operations instantly, resulting in the most comprehensive prevention, detection and response solution on the market. This is how we are returning the high ground to the defenders – and we are just getting started.”