Cisco in talks for Astrix

Cisco is in advanced talks to buy Astrix Security, an artificial intelligence security startup, in a deal reportedly worth as much as $350 million. (siliconangle.com) The reported price range is roughly $250 million to $350 million, according to multiple reports published between April 10 and April 13, 2026. Cisco has not announced a deal, and the reports describe the negotiations as ongoing. (siliconangle.com) (pymnts.com) Astrix says it secures “AI agents and Non-Human Identities,” meaning software accounts, tokens, and automated tools that log into systems without a person typing a password. Its platform is built to find those machine accounts, flag excessive access, and watch for suspicious behavior in real time. (astrix.security) That category has grown with the spread of agentic artificial intelligence, which lets software carry out tasks on its own inside business systems. In Astrix’s December 10, 2024 funding announcement, the company said AI agents were increasing the number of application programming interface keys, service accounts, and other machine identities that companies have to secure. (prnewswire.com) Astrix was founded in 2021 by Alon Jackson and Idan Gour and is based in Tel Aviv. The company said in December 2024 that it had raised $45 million in Series B funding, bringing total funding to $85 million. (astrix.security) (prnewswire.com) In that same funding round, Astrix said Menlo Ventures led the investment through its Anthology Fund with Anthropic, and Workday Ventures also joined. Astrix said its Fortune 500 customers included Figma, NetApp, Priceline, and Workday. (prnewswire.com) For Cisco, the talks fit a larger push into security and software after its $28 billion Splunk acquisition closed on March 18, 2024. Cisco said that deal would combine networking, security, observability, and data tools to help customers “power and protect” artificial intelligence systems. (newsroom.cisco.com) Cisco’s 2025 annual report shows how central that shift has become: security revenue rose 59% year over year, while the company kept emphasizing artificial intelligence infrastructure, data, security, and monitoring as linked product areas. A smaller purchase like Astrix would add a focused identity-security product to that broader platform. (investor.cisco.com) (stocktitan.net) If the talks end in a signed deal, Cisco would be buying a startup built around a narrow problem that has gotten bigger as more companies let software act like workers. Until then, the story is a report about negotiations, not a completed acquisition. (siliconangle.com)