# Upwind Funding: How Much It Raised, Its Valuation & Investors

> Upwind raised $300 million at a $3.8 billion valuation in September 2026, led by Bessemer Venture Partners and TCV. Here's the full breakdown of the round, the backers, and what the AI cloud security startup will do next.

_[Wortins Blog](https://www.wortins.com/blog) · Published Thursday, September 3, 2026_

**Upwind raised $300 million in a Series C round at a $3.8 billion valuation**, announced September 2, 2026 and led by **Bessemer Venture Partners and TCV**. The Israeli startup's valuation has climbed roughly $2.3 billion since the start of 2026, part of a broader surge of capital flowing into companies that secure AI systems rather than build them.

Here's the full breakdown of the raise, the backers, and why AI-native security is attracting this kind of money.

## What is Upwind?

Upwind is a **cloud security platform** that detects malicious prompts aimed at large language models and secures agentic applications in real time. Founded in **2022** by **Amiram Shachar**, the company built its business around a problem that barely existed a few years ago: as companies deploy AI agents that can take real actions inside production systems, the attack surface those agents create needs its own dedicated watch layer. Upwind says it achieves about **95% precision** in detecting malicious prompts.

## The raise: $300M Series C

The headline numbers:

- **Amount:** $300 million
- **Round:** Series C
- **Valuation:** $3.8 billion
- **Announced:** September 2, 2026
- **Lead investors:** Bessemer Venture Partners, TCV

Upwind's previous round was a **Series B at a $1.5 billion valuation in May 2026**. Climbing from $1.5 billion to $3.8 billion in about four months — a gain of roughly $2.3 billion — is one of the steeper valuation jumps among AI security startups this year, and it tracks a broader wave of investment specifically into securing AI deployments rather than building them.

## Who invested in Upwind?

The Series C was led by **Bessemer Venture Partners** and **TCV**, with participation from:

- **Craft Ventures**
- **Greylock**

## What Upwind will do with the money

Specific use-of-funds details were not disclosed alongside the raise. The scale of the round, following so closely behind a $1.5 billion Series B just four months prior, points to a company scaling fast to keep pace with enterprise demand for guarding AI systems already in production.

## Why it matters

1. **Securing AI is becoming its own well-funded category.** As more companies deploy autonomous agents into live systems, the tooling that watches for malicious prompts and unsafe agent behavior is being treated as critical infrastructure — not a nice-to-have bolted on after deployment. Upwind's raise sits alongside a broader wave of capital into [AI defense and security startups](/blog/ai-defense-tech-funding-2026) in 2026.
2. **A four-month, $2.3 billion valuation jump reflects urgency, not just growth.** Investors moving that fast between rounds usually signals a category where the risk of waiting — losing access to a fast-scaling leader — outweighs the risk of overpaying.
3. **The AI infrastructure stack now includes its own guardrails layer.** Just as companies like [Baseten](/blog/baseten-funding) are building the plumbing to run AI models in production, Upwind represents the parallel bet that the plumbing needs its own dedicated security layer as agentic systems take on more autonomous, consequential actions.

Source: [Bloomberg — Upwind Raises $300 Million at $3.8 Billion Valuation for AI Cloud Cybersecurity](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-02/upwind-raises-300-million-at-3-8-billion-valuation-for-ai-cloud-cybersecurity)

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## Frequently asked questions

### How much did Upwind raise?

Upwind raised $300 million in a Series C round announced on September 2, 2026.

### What is Upwind's valuation?

The round valued Upwind at $3.8 billion, up from $1.5 billion at its Series B in May 2026 — a jump of roughly $2.3 billion in about four months.

### Who invested in Upwind?

The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners and TCV, with participation from Craft Ventures and Greylock.

### What does Upwind do?

Upwind is a cloud security platform that detects malicious prompts aimed at large language models and secures agentic applications in real time.

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