Cato Networks

Cato Networks was founded in 2015 by Shlomo Kramer (co-founder of Check Point and Imperva) and Gur Shatz (co-founder of Incapsula). Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Cato is a privately held company that achieved a valuation of over $3 billion following a $238 million funding round in September 2023. The company employs hundreds of people globally, with its core engineering and product functions based in Israel. Cato's product is a cloud-native SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) platform.

The primary product is the Cato SASE Cloud. The platform addresses the complexity of enterprise networking and security by converging SD-WAN and network security capabilities (FWaaS, SWG, CASB, ZTNA) into a single global cloud service. Target buyers are enterprise IT and security teams looking to replace fragmented edge appliances. Cato's technical backbone consists of a proprietary global private network featuring dozens of Points of Presence (PoPs) connected by multiple SLA-backed network providers, reducing reliance on public internet routing for enterprise traffic.

The flagship offering is the Cato SASE Cloud. It combines several core functionalities: Cato SD-WAN, which connects physical branch locations and data centers, and Cato SSE 360, which provides the security layer including Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB). The company emphasizes a single-pass, cloud-native architecture built entirely in-house, contrasting with competitors that have assembled SASE platforms via acquisitions.

Cato competes directly with Zscaler, Palo Alto Networks (Prisma SASE), Cisco, and Fortinet. Cato occupies a distinct position as a Single-Vendor SASE provider, recognized regularly in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for SASE. The company targets the mid-market and large enterprise segments, capitalizing on the broader market shift from hardware-centric network deployments to consolidated, cloud-delivered network and security services.

The company's headquarters is located in the Sarona complex in Tel Aviv. The Tel Aviv office houses the majority of Cato's R&D, product management, and executive leadership. Hiring in Israel largely focuses on network engineers, backend developers (typically using C/C++, Go, and Python), security researchers, and DevOps professionals. Both founders are veterans of the Israeli cybersecurity industry, facilitating strong ties to the local tech talent pool and military intelligence alumni networks.