Check Point buys Swiss AI security co Lakera

Israeli cybersecurity company Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) has entered into an agreement to acquire Swiss company Lakera. Estimates are that Check Point will pay $300 million.

In its announcement Check Point described Lakera as one of the world’s leading AI-native security platforms for Agentic AI applications. The Swiss company was founded in 2021 by AI experts who had formerly worked at Google and Meta and built a platform especially for AI environments. Today Lakera provides protection for large language models (LLMs), AI agents and model context protocols (MCPs) for the connection between AI agents and LLMs for data.

Lakera has 70 employees at its development centers in Zurich and San Francisco including 11 with Ph.Ds.

In its press release Check Point said, “With this acquisition, Check Point sets a new standard in cybersecurity, becoming able to deliver a full end-to-end AI security stack designed to protect enterprises as they accelerate their AI journey.”

Check Point added that Lakera combines advanced real time protection with continuous red teaming and prevents unauthorized or exceptional AI activity. The Swiss company has Fortune 500 customers worldwide and supports more than 100 languages.

Check Point said that when the acquisition is completed, Lakera’s headquarters in Zurich will become a global R&D center for the company in the field of AI, which will work closely with its development center in Tel Aviv. The acquisition will be completed before the end of 2025 subject to receipt of regulatory approvals. At the end of the second quarter, Check Point had $2.9 billion in cash so it should have no problem financing the acquisition from its own capital.

Check Point CEO Nadav Zafrir said, “Check Point led the cybersecurity revolution in the Internet era and it will lead the protection revolution in AI. The combination of Check Point’s AI-based architecture and Lakera’s advanced capabilities allows us to offer the world’s leading platform for end-to-end AI security. We will set the bar for how organizations protect the entire AI lifecycle – from models, to agents, to the data itself, enabling everyone to confidently deploy AI at scale and without compromise.”

Lakera cofounder and CEO David Haber added, “Joining Check Point allows us to accelerate and scale our mission globally. Together we will protect LLMs, generative AI, and agents with the speed, accuracy, and guardrails enterprises need to embrace AI with confidence.”

In May Check Point acquired Israeli startup Veriti in a deal estimated at more than $100 million – the first acquisition by the company since Zafrir became CEO last December.