Israeli cybersecurity startup Torq secured $140 million in Series D funding this week, reaching a $1.2 billion valuation and joining the unicorn club. The round brings Torq's total funding to $332 million.
Merlin Ventures led the investment, with participation from Evolution Equity Partners, Notable Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Insight Partners. Merlin's involvement provides Torq with access to U.S. commercial and public sector markets.
The Tel Aviv-based company's AI SOC Platform uses artificial intelligence agents to manage security operations at scale. These agents triage low-fidelity alerts automatically, allowing human analysts to focus on verified, high-impact threats.
Fortune 500 companies including Marriott, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Uber, and Virgin Atlantic use Torq's platform daily. The system handles millions of agentic security actions, managing everything from complex investigations to rapid response.
"We have achieved tremendous revenue growth, with Fortune 100 customers adopting our AI agents in their SOCs for everything from investigation to response," said Ofer Smadari, Torq CEO and co-founder. "Our partnership with Merlin Ventures is the definitive signal that Torq is now ready to scale this massive customer success into the high-stakes federal and public sector markets."
Torq reported approximately 300% revenue growth last year while expanding its workforce to over 350 employees across offices in New York, Tel Aviv, Japan, Germany, Amsterdam, and London. The company plans to hire an additional 200 employees in 2026.
The funding follows previous rounds of $50 million in December 2021, $42 million in January 2024, and $70 million in September 2024. This rapid funding timeline reflects growing investor confidence in AI-driven security solutions.
Organizations implementing Torq's technology can automate more than 95% of Tier-1 analyst tasks and remediate over 95% of security threats autonomously, according to company reports, freeing security teams from manual triage burdens. The platform's self-service capabilities enable customers to build their own AI agents with minimal effort.
"Our focus now is speed -- accelerating go-to-market, expanding across commercial and government markets, and building the next global category leader in AI security operations," said Shay Michel, Merlin Ventures Managing Partner.
Torq was founded in 2020 by Smadari, Leonid Belkind, and Eldad Livni. The company pivoted after ChatGPT's emergence in late 2022, launching its first AI agent for security operations by summer 2023.
The investment comes as Israeli cybersecurity firms raised $4 billion in 2024, more than double the $1.89 billion raised in 2023, according to YL Ventures' State of the Cyber Nation report. Torq's success reflects broader industry momentum toward AI-powered security automation.
"This accelerates our mission to define and dominate the AI SOC market," Smadari said. The company now protects multinational enterprises across multiple sectors, with expansion into U.S. Federal and Public Sector markets through its Merlin Ventures partnership.
