Palo Alto Networks is buying Israeli cybersecurity startup Koi for around $400 million. This is part of Palo Alto Networks’ strong buying activity in 2025. Earlier, the company completed a $25 billion acquisition of CyberArk, along with buying Chronosphere for $3.35 billion and Protect AI for $500 million.
The deal is a big success for Koi’s founders and investors. The company has raised only $48 million so far, mostly from a $38 million Series A funding round last September. Selling for $400 million makes it a strong and quick return on investment.
Koi was founded in 2024 by former members of the Israeli Defense Forces’ elite 8200 Intelligence Corps technology unit. The company works in enterprise endpoint protection, helping businesses protect their devices and systems from cyber threats. Its investors include Team8, NFX, Battery Ventures, and Picture Capital.
Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, visited Israel in December. During his visit, he met employees of CyberArk before the acquisition was finalized. He also looked at other Israeli startups that could be potential acquisition targets.
Arora explained that fast changes in AI technology are transforming the cybersecurity industry. Because of this, companies need more unified endpoint security solutions, including XDR and EDR tools. Buying Koi fits this strategy, as it strengthens Palo Alto’s focus on improving and combining endpoint security services.
“AI agents and tools are the ultimate insiders. They have full access to your systems and data, but operate entirely outside the view of traditional security controls,” said Lee Klarich, Chief Product & Technology Officer, at Palo Alto Networks. “By acquiring Koi, we will be closing this gap and setting a new standard for endpoint security. We will give our customers the visibility and control required to safely harness the power of AI—ensuring that every agent, plugin, and script is governed, verified, and secure.”
Amit Assaraf, CEO and Co-Founder of Koi, said: “We founded Koi to secure the next frontier of risk. In an agentic-first world, traditional solutions are blind. Joining forces with Palo Alto Networks will allow us to scale our technology to the world’s largest organizations, delivering protection that makes work on the modern AI-native endpoint secure by design.”
Koi was started in 2024 by Amit Assaraf (CEO and founder of real estate startup Landa), Idan Dardikman (CTO), and Itay Kruk (CPO), who previously worked at Sygnia and Zscaler. They decided to build the company after discovering a serious security weakness in the Visual Studio Code Marketplace.
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