It’s a bad week for Israel haters.
It’s early January. The year’s barely started. And Israel’s tech ecosystem is already making itself indispensable.
We’re only a few weeks into 2026, and Startup Nation is already doing what it does best: getting acquired, getting funded, and quietly powering the global economy.
Let’s take a look at all the companies and technologies the antisemites will need to boycott next.
PayPal is acquiring Tel Aviv-based Cymbio to supercharge AI commerce opportunities
Today, PayPal announced an agreement to acquire Cymbio, an Israeli multi-channel commerce platform that helps brands sell across online marketplaces and AI-powered surfaces such as Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity.
The deal brings Cymbio’s technology and team into PayPal’s expanding agentic commerce ecosystem — a suite of AI-centric tools that connect merchant product catalogs directly to intelligent shopping platforms where consumers ask AI assistants to find and buy products.
Why this matters in Israel’s tech landscape:
Israeli startups continue to attract acquisition interest from global tech players — here with a Tel Aviv team joining forces with one of the world’s most recognized fintech brands.
The deal reflects a broader global shift toward AI-driven shopping experiences, where the line between search, discovery, and purchase blurs and platforms like Copilot, Perplexity, and soon ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini integrate direct buying.
It succeeds long-standing roots: Cymbio’s relationship with PayPal goes back years, including previous investments from PayPal Ventures and integrations in the agentic stack.
Founded in Tel Aviv in 2015, Cymbio has spent years building infrastructure that makes brands and retailers’ catalogs discoverable and purchasable across hundreds of online channels and marketplaces. Under PayPal’s ownership, its capabilities will be embedded into Store Sync, a key part of PayPal’s agentic commerce services that allows merchants to automatically sync product data with a growing set of AI platforms.
Claroty raises $150 million to protect critical infrastructure from cyberthreats
In another accomplishment in the industry, Claroty, an Israeli-founded cybersecurity company, announced a $150 million Series F funding round led by Golub Growth. Based in New York but built on Israeli tech roots, Claroty focuses on safeguarding cyber-physical systems in sectors like energy, healthcare, water utilities, and industrial operations — all increasingly targeted by advanced attacks.
Key takeaways:
This latest funding underscores the global appetite for advanced cybersecurity solutions that protect not just data, but physical infrastructure — from electrical grids to manufacturing systems.
As geopolitical and digital threats rise, investments like this highlight Israel’s strength in security-focused technology that scales globally.
Women-led AI startup Legato raises $7 million to rethink enterprise software creation
We also have news of a promising women-led AI startup: Legato, founded just last year, raised $7 million in seed funding to build tools that let business users (not just developers) create internal software and automation inside enterprise platforms using natural-language prompts.
Why this matters:
It reflects a growing trend: AI that does work for you, not for programmers only.
Israeli AI startups continue to innovate, now moving beyond core tech to tools that reshape how businesses operate internally.
Legato’s pitch is that traditional enterprise software customization is slow, costly, and dependent on technical teams. Its AI-led approach empowers operational users to build workflows and apps directly within the platforms they already use, cutting months of professional services work down to minutes.
The big picture:
A global tech titan expanding through Israeli innovation.
Deep cybersecurity investment amid rising global risk.
Early-stage AI tools are reshaping enterprise workflows.
It’s early January. The year’s barely started. And Israel’s tech ecosystem is already making itself indispensable.