Torq, an Israeli cybersecurity startup that’s been building AI-powered security operations tools since 2020, just closed a $140 million funding round that values the company at $1.2 billion. The money’s going toward expanding its AI-driven security operations center platform and pushing harder into the U.S. market.
This brings Torq’s total fundraising to $332 million since it got started—pretty solid for a company that’s only been around five years. The round was led by Merlin Ventures, with all the existing investors coming back in. That group includes Evolution Equity Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Notable Capital, and Greenfield Partners.
When your previous investors keep writing checks, it usually means something’s working. Either they’re seeing real traction or they don’t want to miss out on the next stage. Either way, it’s a vote of confidence.
What Torq Actually Does
Torq builds security operations center platforms using AI to help companies spot and respond to cyber threats faster. If you’re not familiar with SOCs, they’re basically the command centers where security teams monitor everything happening across a company’s networks—watching for suspicious activity, investigating incidents, handling responses when something goes wrong.
The company says it’s working with some big names: Marriott, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Uber, Virgin Atlantic. That’s a pretty diverse mix—hotels, consumer goods, manufacturing, airlines. It suggests their platform isn’t just built for one type of business.
Now, whether those companies are using Torq as their main security tool or just adding it to their existing setup, we don’t know. But landing enterprise clients like that isn’t easy. You need to prove your tech can handle complicated security environments where one screwup could be catastrophic.
The AI SOC Market Torq Wants to Own
CEO and co-founder Ofer Smadari said the funding will help Torq “define and dominate the AI SOC market.” That’s not shy language. The “define and dominate” part is interesting because it suggests Torq thinks they’re not just competing for customers—they’re trying to shape what AI-powered security operations should even look like.
There’s a lot of noise in cybersecurity right now. Every vendor’s slapping “AI-powered” on their product and calling it revolutionary. Torq seems to be betting that purpose-built AI SOC platforms will become their own thing, separate from older security tools with AI features tacked on. Whether that actually happens depends on if their tech delivers or not.
The timing does make sense though. Security teams at big companies are absolutely buried in alerts. Traditional SOC work involves tons of manual sorting through noise to find actual threats—exactly the kind of tedious work AI should be able to speed up. If Torq’s platform genuinely helps teams respond faster or catch things humans would miss, there’s real value there.
What’s Next for Torq
The U.S. expansion piece is pretty standard for Israeli cybersecurity companies with big ambitions. The U.S. market is massive, and if you want to scale past a certain point, you need boots on the ground there—sales teams, support staff, the whole infrastructure.
At a $1.2 billion valuation, Torq’s firmly in late-stage startup territory. They’re past the “prove the concept works” phase and into “show us the revenue growth and path to profitability” territory. Investors at this stage care less about potential and more about numbers.
The real test will be whether Torq can turn that customer list into the kind of recurring revenue that justifies their valuation—and positions them for either going public or getting acquired by a larger player. For now, they’ve got the capital to make their move. Whether they can actually own the AI SOC market or just become another well-funded name in a crowded field? That story’s still being written.
