Cyber company Daylight, founded by Israeli entrepreneurs and headquartered in New York, raised $80 million in a Series B led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Goldman Sachs' alternative investments arm. According to reports, Okta Ventures, the investment arm of identity company Okta, also took part, along with existing investors including Bain Capital. The company's total funding reached $120 million, and according to sources quoted in the media it was valued at about $400 million.
Daylight works in a field called MDR, managed detection and response: a service in which an outside company monitors a customer's network and responds to security incidents for them. Its innovation is combining AI agents that do most of the routine work with human experts who handle complex cases. The promise: more customers per analyst, and faster response.
The same day, Tel Aviv-based Bay, founded only in early 2026, came out of stealth with $50 million: a $37 million Series A led by Battery Ventures and a previously undisclosed $13 million seed round led by YL Ventures and Striker. Bay builds a system that checks the actions of AI agents in real time, before they are executed, and can stop a dangerous action.
Both rounds show where cyber money is flowing. It is not going to classic defense products, but to anything involving AI agents: both using them for defense and defending against them. A company less than a year old raising $50 million is a sign of investors' confidence in the field, and to some extent of their fear of missing it.
And that is exactly where caution is needed. This week Vanta was reported to be acquiring Israel's Pillar for about $150 million, and last week CrowdStrike announced it is buying two US companies in the field. When so much money pours into the same problem at once, not everyone will win. The difference between Bay and its dozens of competitors will be decided not by the size of the round, but by who convinces large organizations to pay, and fast.
