Israeli-founded cyber unicorn Snyk buys local application security startup

US-based cybersecurity startup Snyk, founded by Israeli entrepreneurs, said it is buying Tel Aviv-based startup Enso Security to bolster its developer security platform for software applications.

The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Estimates in the Hebrew press put the price tag between $45 million to $50 million. Founded in 2015 by Israeli entrepreneurs Guy Podjarny, Assaf Hefetz, and Danny Grander, Snyk helps software developers and companies integrate security solutions into their workflows as they are building applications from code to cloud to protect them against sophisticated cyber attacks.

With the fast adoption of AI enabling developers to introduce code faster, Snyk says it is more difficult than ever for developers and application security professionals to identify and prioritize risks to their business. In this complex environment, application security teams need a toolkit for better visibility to find and fix security issues.

Snyk chief product officer Manoj Nair said the integration of Enso’s platform into its security solutions will help “enterprises achieve greater supply chain security transparency, allowing them to eliminate crucial security coverage gaps across their business.”

Founded in 2020 by former Wix application security experts Roy Erlich, Chen Gour Arie, and Barak Tawily, Enso has built a so-called application security posture management (ASPM) platform, that the startup says provides a unified way businesses and organizations manage and operate security threats and vulnerabilities to their software applications. The Tel Aviv-based startup in October 2020 raised $6 million in seed funding, led by YL Ventures. Other investors in the startup include Jump Capital, Cyberark Ventures and Merlin Ventures.

“This acquisition is a testament to our shared mission to eliminate AppSec chaos and revolutionize the way we manage AppSec in our organizations,” Erlich wrote in a blog post. “By combining the capabilities from Enso Security and Snyk, businesses will get a holistic view of their security risks and vulnerabilities, enabling them to make informed decisions about where to focus their resources.”

By 2026, over 40% of businesses and organizations developing software applications are expected to adopt ASPM to more rapidly identify and resolve security issues, according to a Gartner report.

The acquisition comes after Snyk back in December raised $196.5 million from investors in a Series G funding round at a lower company valuation of $7.4 billion. That’s after the startup raised fresh capital at a valuation of $8.5 billion back in September 2021.

Snyk laid off 128 employees in April 2022 and 198 workers in October as part of a streamlining process and introduced spending cuts in key areas such as global real estate footprint, IT and subscription services, and business travel.

Last month, US tech giant IBM acquired Israeli cyber startup Polar Security, a developer of an automated data security platform to track and protect sensitive data across hybrid cloud-based systems.