Building a Venture Scale Cyber Security Startup in the Age of AI: Alon Jackson, CEO of Astrix Security (Part 1)

Alon comes from the rich ecosystem of Cyber Security entrepreneurs in Israel. He has built an excellent, high growth AI Cyber Security company. You will find an in-depth discussion on his strategy that has included raising $85M in funding.

Sramana Mitra: All right. Alon, let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised? What kind of background?

Alon Jackson: I was born and raised in Israel like many cybersecurity founders. The industry here is kind of the bedrock of cybersecurity. I was a computer geek as a kid. I joined the Army and spent 12 years there—quite a long military career—as a major in Unit 8200, which is a cybersecurity unit in Israel. I worked a lot on the offensive side.

After the army, I joined Argus, a cybersecurity company that deals with automotive attacks—hacking into cars and creating countermeasures. We sold the company for almost half a billion to a big German company called Continental. Some exciting years.

Sramana Mitra: What role were you in at that company?

Alon Jackson: I led the R&D department—delivering everything the sales folks promised. It was actually very interesting working with Americans, Germans, and Japanese—where the heart of the automotive industry sits. It’s a very different sector and business; I learned a lot before starting Astrix.

Sramana Mitra: Before Astrix, what years were you working at the automotive security company?

Alon Jackson: That was 2018 to 2021.

Sramana Mitra: 2018 to 2021. 2021’s still during COVID.

Alon Jackson: Yes, towards the end there was COVID.

Sramana Mitra: When did you start Astrix?

Alon Jackson: When COVID started, I was still at Argus. I left the company in between COVID waves. We started Astrix mid-2021.

Sramana Mitra: What was the thesis? What problem did you want to solve, and why?

Alon Jackson: The thesis was similar to today—adopting automation, tools, creating connectivity, and enabling businesses to work faster and smarter, but securely. Back then, we were focused mainly on apps personal and enterprise. The question was how to do this securely. How do we leverage third-party services and connect them to the enterprise without compromising productivity, compliance, or security?

These days, you can translate “apps” to “agents”. They’re similar in some ways, but very different in others.

Sramana Mitra: Architecturally, they’re completely different.

Alon Jackson: Completely. Also culturally and process-wise—there’s more to gain and more to lose.

Sramana Mitra: But in 2021, agents weren’t yet on the horizon. So back in 2021, what was the core thesis you started with?

Alon Jackson: It was about third-party applications and app-to-app connectivity. Funny enough, we actually started with the term “integration access management.” Not a great name, but we came out of stealth with that and raised a strong seed round from amazing investors with that tagline.

Sramana Mitra: Why did the investors invest in you? Did you have customers already? What was the basis of the investment?

Alon Jackson: For the seed round, we had a bunch of design partners who were ready to buy once we started the company. We had a POC running, a lot of validation from the market, and a handful of folks ready to join the team. A lot of the basic infrastructure for a seed-stage company was already in place.

Sramana Mitra: Were these people validating your thesis from your previous job? Did you know these people from your previous job? How did you bring them around the table to design partners?

Alon Jackson: I think it goes back to the strength of the Israeli ecosystem. Being in Tel Aviv, being in Unit 8200, being part of the computer science and geek community really helps you learn from others and network. It’s a small ecosystem—everyone knows everyone—and that helps a lot in connecting with the right people.

Sramana Mitra: So, these were Israeli customers? Were all the customers from Israel?

Alon Jackson: Not necessarily. Only one of them out of five was Israeli. We came with our thesis, talked to our network, and asked who might be interested or could help.

Sramana Mitra: So, people connected you to others. These were U.S. customers that you brought around to the table?

Alon Jackson: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: How much did you raise in the seed round?

Alon Jackson: The seed round was $15 million.

Sramana Mitra: $15 million, okay.

Alon Jackson: It was led by Bessemer Venture Partners together with F2, a local Israeli fund.

Sramana Mitra: What was the competitive landscape like when you started?

Alon Jackson: There was no one really looking at what we call today non-human identities. No one was looking deeply at access management for non-users.

Sramana Mitra: So, you were essentially tackling integration security, and that was a gap?

Alon Jackson: Yes. There were adjacent markets—cloud security, SaaS security, identity security—all tackling things from different angles, but none were really focusing on this problem. Our bet was that API and connectivity, app-to-app connections, would only increase. It was a growing problem.

AI was in the back of our minds, but not yet a core part of our thesis. We were focused on the API ecosystem, microservices, third-party and SaaS applications, automation and integration platforms. That was the direction we saw the technology going.