Technology giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft compete with one another for the opportunity to host other companies’ databases, IT systems, and AI by offering cloud services. But when it comes to cybersecurity or data backup – anything that could spell bad news for their customers – these cloud companies shirk all responsibility, effectively shifting it onto the customer.
This is how giant Israeli companies emerged, such as Wiz, which allows managers to regain control of cloud cybersecurity and was sold to Google for $32 billion; Cyera, which enables data to be secured in the cloud; and most recently, Eon, the newest hit among Israeli venture capitalists, which provides innovative technology for cloud data backup. Eon assures IT managers that their databases stored in the Amazon, Google, or Microsoft clouds, or alternatively in local clouds in their own offices, will not be erased, even if subject to ransomware attacks or natural disasters. Eon achieves this through an algorithm that "sticks" to the data and prevents it, at any cost, from being deleted.
Ofir Ehrlich, Ron Kimchi and Gonen Stein founded Eon after four years at Amazon Web Services (AWS), which had acquired CloudEndure, the company they had founded previously. CloudEndure did the opposite of Eon – allowing companies to move their data to the Amazon cloud at the click of a button – and was a billion-dollar business by the time they left AWS. Having seen firsthand the customer demand for reliable backup of all data in the cloud, and noting Amazon's inaction in this space, they founded a company that would back up data for Amazon customers. Along the way, they also recruited their former bosses who were among AWS’ senior backup and storage executives.
By this time, the three, led by Ehrlich, were some of the most well-connected entrepreneurs in the industry. With two exits under his belt, Ehrlich had become a darling of venture capital funds and investors, through the extensive network of Unit 8200 "Studio" innovation hub graduates, including some of the founders of Wiz, Fireblocks, Snyk, Lightricks, and Next Silicon. Before founding Eon, they made sure there was real demand for the product, and that there were funds willing to write a check. Company insiders claim that for each financing round completed over the past year, Eon made sure there was at least $300 million in potential investment, although they usually raised less and the rounds were oversubscribed.
The buzz surrounding Ehrlich and his friends, and their involvement in the Israeli cybersecurity entrepreneurship scene made it the hottest commodity on the Israeli investment market in 2024, the same year the company was founded and raised three rounds that sharply increased its value from $215 million to $1.4 billion. The "Globes" ranking of Israel's promising startups generally does not include unicorns, however this is still a very young company, less than a year old, with initial revenue of a few million dollars from its first customers, including a large US-based bank.
An experienced team
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Eon specializes in backing up long-term available data – organizational information usually stored in less critical repositories – data which an enterprise does not need immediately but are always good to have. It may sound like a marginal niche, but in the age of artificial intelligence, this is the very information used for training artificial intelligence models. It is also the same information that is under attack by hackers who take over computer systems and demand ransoms. Eon does not encroach on the territory already inhabited by larger Israeli companies like Weka or VAST, which deal with backup and management of available production data running on enterprise applications, but specializes in making accessible the data stored long-term, usually in special repositories called containers, data warehouses, or data lakes.
This is one of the reasons for the excitement around Eon: it helps companies make previously inaccessible stored data accessible for the purpose of training models, and therefore also fits into the AI revolution. To stand out in the industry, however, it must overtake competitors like Rubrik, Cohesity and CommVault, but company investors noted that Eon is winning contracts with customers already signed with the competition.
To understand why many VCs view Eon as a kind of "second Wiz," look both at its investors, which include Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Omri Casspi’s Swish Ventures, and the team, which includes former Wiz, Amazon, and Microsoft employees, as well as one of the most senior software architects in Israel, with 800 patents to his credit. Eon’s US team is one of the most experienced in the industry, having managed partnerships on behalf of Amazon, Google, and Salesforce. If that wasn’t enough, the company also employs paradigms similar to those of Wiz and Cyera to attract customers and investors: an easy-to-use user interface for heavy enterprise-wide operations, and immediate control, at the click of a button, over all relevant organizational data.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on May 4, 2025.
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