Israeli Cybersecurity Startup Torq Gets $140M Funding to Hit $1.2B Valuation
Torq isn’t cheap. Israeli startup Torq officially joined the unicorn club after securing a $140 million Series D funding round that catapulted its valuation to $1.2 billion.
The Tel Aviv-based company is looking for success in security operations with its AI-powered Security Operations Center platform.
The funding was led by Merlin Ventures, with participation from investors including Evolution Equity Partners, Notable Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Insight Partners.
“Our agents are now deeply embedded in the SOCs of Fortune 500 leaders like Marriott, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Uber, and Virgin Atlantic. They are running millions of agentic security actions every single day — handling everything from complex investigations to rapid response, ” said Ofer Smadari, CEO & Co-Founder, Torq.
Let’s Torq more about this
The strategy that transformed Torq from startup to unicorn comes down to one pivot. The company was founded in 2020 by Smadari, Leonid Belkind, and Eldad Livni, but they completely shifted focus after ChatGPT’s emergence in late 2022. By summer 2023, they had launched their first AI agent for security operations —positioning them well for the AI boom that’s now reshaping entire industries.
Their technology arguably tackles one of cybersecurity’s biggest headaches: processing massive volumes of security alerts that traditionally overwhelm human analysts. Torq deploys AI agents that work like digital security analysts around the clock. These intelligent systems can investigate threats, gather evidence, and even remediate issues automatically while escalating only the most complex cases to human experts
Organizations implementing this technology are achieving 90-95% autonomous alert handling, freeing security teams from the burden of manual triage. Instead of drowning in alerts, human analysts can focus on strategic threats that actually require their expertise.
Revenue growth as evidence
Behind Torq’s unicorn status lies market demand that’s driving growth. The company reported approximately 300% revenue growth in last year, while expanding its workforce to over 350 employees across offices in New York, Tel Aviv, Japan, Germany, Amsterdam, and London. With plans to hire an additional 200 employees in 2026, they’re clearly expecting this momentum to accelerate dramatically.
This latest funding brings Torq’s total raised capital to $332 million, following previous rounds of $50 million in December 2021, $42 million in January 2024, and $70 million in September 2024. That funding timeline shows how rapidly investor confidence—and market demand—has grown in just over a year.
Merlin’s magical touch
Merlin Ventures’ partnership represents more than just capital—it’s designed to help Torq penetrate the lucrative U.S. federal and public sector markets.
In fact, Israel is doing very well on its own. Israeli cybersecurity firms raised $4 billion last year, more than double the $1.89 billion raised in 2023.
Smadari made the company’s ambitions crystal clear: the funding “accelerates our mission to define and dominate the AI SOC market.”
With cybersecurity threats evolving at machine speed and traditional manual processes becoming obsolete, Torq’s AI-driven approach may well represent the future of organizational defense.
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