Israeli cybersecurity startup Echo has secured $35 million in a Series A funding round, elevating its total capital to $50 million. The company is tackling a critical bottleneck in cloud development by reimagining the insecure foundations of container base images. Echo aims to replace the chaotic open-source supply chain with a managed, secure-by-design operating system for the AI era.
Addressing the Hidden Risk in Cloud Infrastructure
Modern applications are built using container base images, which function like a pre-installed operating system for software. However, these foundational layers, often from open-source communities, are bloated with unnecessary components and latent vulnerabilities. This inherited security debt creates significant risk before a single line of proprietary code is even written.
Echo's research reveals that official images can contain over 1,000 known vulnerabilities, forcing security teams into a losing battle of patching. CTO Eylam Milner likens using this software to plugging a computer found on the sidewalk into a corporate network. This reactive approach creates an impossible game of "whac-a-mole" for enterprises trying to secure their applications.
Rebuilding Software from the Ground Up
Instead of scanning and patching existing flaws, Echo operates as a "software compilation factory" that rebuilds images from a clean slate. Its process compiles binaries and libraries directly from source code, ensuring only essential components are included. This method drastically reduces the potential attack surface by eliminating unnecessary bloat from the start of the development lifecycle.
The resulting images are hardened with aggressive security configurations and adhere to SLSA Level 3 standards for supply chain security. This ensures every artifact is signed, tested, and verifiable, providing a mathematically cleaner foundation. For developers, the transition is seamless, requiring just a single line change in their configuration to point to Echo’s registry.
An Enterprise-Grade OS for the AI Revolution
CEO Eilon Elhadad positions Echo as the "enterprise AI native OS," drawing a parallel to how Red Hat professionalized open-source Linux for corporate use. The company aims to provide a hardened, curated foundation for the era of AI and agentic workflows. This vision addresses the growing need for a trusted infrastructure layer as AI becomes integral to software development.
To combat the accelerating threat landscape, Echo leverages its own AI agents to automate vulnerability management. These agents continuously monitor thousands of new threats from official databases and unstructured sources like developer forums. This allows Echo to maintain over 600 secure images and deliver a "self-healing" capability that patches vulnerabilities autonomously.
Strong Backing and Enterprise Adoption
The $35 million funding round was led by N47, with participation from Notable Capital, Hyperwise Ventures, and SentinelOne. Founders Eilon Elhadad and Eylam Milner are veterans of Israel’s elite intelligence units and previously founded Argon, which was acquired by Aqua Security. Their deep cybersecurity expertise has attracted significant investor confidence and early customer trust.
Echo is already securing production workloads for major enterprises, including UiPath, Varonis, Vectra AI, and EDB. Customers report significant efficiency gains, with EDB’s CISO noting the platform saves hundreds of developer hours per release. The new capital will fuel the expansion of its 35-person team and accelerate commercial growth.
Echo's approach represents a fundamental shift in DevSecOps, moving from reactive remediation to proactive prevention. By providing a "zero vulnerabilities by default" foundation, the company allows engineering teams to focus on innovation over infrastructure debt. As enterprises deploy AI agents, this secure-by-design infrastructure is becoming essential for building the next generation of software safely.