Congratulations to Astrix Security on Their Anticipated Acquisition by Cisco

This morning, Cisco announced its intent to acquire Astrix Security, the AI agentic security platform. From our first meeting with founders Alon Jackson and Idan Gour, their vision and intensity were unmistakable. They had spotted a blind spot the industry hadn’t caught up to yet. Today’s news is a testament to their insight, their execution, and the team they built.

Why We Invested

When we first developed our thesis on non-human identity (NHI) security, the problem felt urgent but underappreciated. Machines (e.g., service accounts, API keys, tokens, certificates, automated workflows) now outnumber human users in the enterprise by an order of magnitude. Yet enterprises had no “Okta for machines.” The identity perimeter had quietly expanded beyond what any traditional IAM tool could handle, and attackers were already exploiting the gap. The spring 2023 Microsoft breach, which compromised accounts across 22 organizations including U.S. government agencies, was just one high-profile example of what was becoming a systemic vulnerability.

Astrix stood out immediately. Founded in 2021 by Alon Jackson and Idan Gour—both veterans of Israel’s elite Unit 8200—the company had the rare combination of deep technical credibility and sharp commercial instincts. They entered the market early, got a real education on enterprise pain points, and used that knowledge to evolve their product from SaaS app visibility into a comprehensive NHI lifecycle management platform. By the time we led their Series B, Astrix was helping security teams automatically detect, inventory, and remediate stale or overprivileged machine access across SaaS, cloud, and on-premise infrastructure. What started as a niche felt increasingly like category infrastructure.

From NHI Pioneer to AI Agent Security Platform

Since we invested, the Astrix team has executed at every level. They expanded from SaaS access governance into a full-stack NHI security platform, covering service accounts, cloud credentials, and the sprawling web of machine-to-machine connections that increasingly define how modern enterprises operate. Customers like Workday, HubSpot, Mercury, and Figma came on board, and deal sizes grew as the platform moved upmarket.

Perhaps most importantly, the team read the AI wave early. As agentic AI introduced a new class of non-human actors into enterprise environments, Astrix expanded to meet it. In early 2026, they launched a comprehensive AI agent security platform covering discovery, runtime monitoring, and policy enforcement for both sanctioned and shadow agents across the enterprise stack. Four years in, what was once an early-stage bet had become a cornerstone of enterprise security strategy. 

What Comes Next

This marks a new chapter for a capability that enterprises urgently need at scale. Astrix’s platform will be integrated into Cisco’s security portfolio—including Identity Intelligence, Duo, and Secure Access—giving the NHI and AI agent security problem the enterprise distribution it deserves. In an era where AI agents are being granted access to sensitive systems across every industry, the combination of Astrix’s depth and Cisco’s reach is a powerful one.

We’re grateful to have partnered with Alon, Idan, and the entire Astrix team. They created the category from the ground up before the world came to appreciate the importance of securing AI agents. Congratulations—we’re excited to see what you build next!