Torq

The problem: an alert volume that wears analysts down

Torq operates at the heart of an organization's control center, what is known as a SOC, a security operations center. The familiar problem there is volume: analysts receive thousands of alerts a day, the vast majority of them false, and each one requires the same repeated investigation steps: checking who the user is, whether the computer is up to date, whether the address is known to be malicious. The result is burnout, long response times, and sometimes missing the one alert that was real.

From rigid playbooks to agents that decide for themselves

The previous generation of automation tools, known as SOAR, tried to solve the problem with "playbooks" written in advance, but these were rigid: any scenario not foreseen in advance fell back into human hands. The approach of Torq, founded in 2020 by Ofer Smadari (CEO), Leonid Belkind (CTO) and Eldad Livni, replaces the playbook with AI agents that carry out the triage and investigation stage themselves: they decide which checks to run, run them, and pass to a person only what requires real judgment. The platform is called HyperSOC.

What Torq itself announced about the big round

On 12 January 2026, Torq published on its official news page (torq.io/news) an announcement titled "Torq Secures $140M Series D at $1.2B Valuation to Lead the AI SOC and Agentic AI Era": a $140 million Series D round that raised the company's valuation to $1.2 billion and its total funding to $332 million, led by Merlin Ventures with participation from existing investors. Torq's CEO, Ofer Smadari, was quoted in the announcement: "This funding accelerates our mission to define and dominate the AI SOC market." The announcement also said that the company protects hundreds of global organizations, including Marriott, PepsiCo and Siemens, and that it planned to use the round's money to expand into the US federal market.

Acquisitions alongside the funding

Before this round, the company had already raised a $70 million round in 2024, and in April 2025 it acquired the Israeli company Revrod for more than $20 million. After the round, in May 2026, it also acquired the Israeli company Jit for about $70 million, according to Calcalist reports on the two deals.

When AI replaces the core component, not just improves it

Torq is a clear example of companies where artificial intelligence is not an add-on to the product but the thing that replaces its core component. If the previous generation sold an engine that runs procedures a person wrote, this generation sells a system that decides for itself which steps to take, a difference that also changes the model of responsibility toward the customer.