The High-tech crisis: Israeli cyber unicorn Checkmarx is laying off about 100 of it's employees

The Israeli cyber unicorn Checkmarx, which operates in the field of application security, is laying off about 100 employees, of which 40 are in Israel, making up 10% of the company, according to an email issued by Emanuel Ben-Zakan, CEO and co-founder of Checkmarx, to his employees today.
Checkmarks became a unicorn with its purchase in 2020 by the American investment fund Hellman Friedman, for about 1.2 billion dollars. The American fund bought the Cyber ​​company from the Insight fund, which bought most of the company in 2015 for $100 million
According to the assessment, the reasons for the layoffs are the rapid inflation in the world and the economic situation that makes it difficult for many companies in the world. In light of these difficulties, the company formulated a plan to change the prioritization of its expense structure and to refocus its activities and goals. These changes will allow it to continue to innovate, support its customers and ensure its continued growth.
 The CEO of Checkmarks, Emmanuel Ben-Zakan said: "The current situation in the global markets affects entire industries, including the high-tech industry, and this reality requires taking decisive steps that will ensure the success of Checkmarks and the success of its customers in the long term. Among these steps is also the difficult decision to say goodbye to some of our valued colleagues, to whom we will provide assistance in the expected transition process.
"Now, we will reorganize the company's structure and refocus our resources to face the short-term challenges and ensure long-term growth. Checkmarks will continue to make significant investments in the development of its products, which will focus on the company's core areas, including continued innovation in our application security platform for the corporate sector ".
In 2021, the company also announced its intention to recruit hundreds of employees and now has to say goodbye to quite a few of them. Checkmarks was founded in 2006 by Mati Siman and Emanuel Ben Zaken and employs about 1,000 people in about 70 countries. The company, which was established in 2006, currently has about 1,700 customers worldwide. The company is active in the market of information security for applications and focuses on automatic scanning of development code, finding security loopholes during the development process, and checking the compatibility of the code with the organization's security requirements.