NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 11, 2026--
Torq, the established Agentic AI security operations pioneer, today announced it has closed a massive $140 million Series D funding round, propelling its valuation to $1.2 billion and total funding to $332M.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112510774/en/
Led by Merlin Ventures —a leading cybersecurity fund renowned for its deep access to the U.S. commercial and Public Sector markets—with participation from all existing investors, including Evolution Equity Partners, Notable Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Ventures Partners, and Greenfield Partners, this capital injection is a definitive investment in the future of security. Torq is driving the industry’s critical shift: the complete transformation of the Security Operations Center (SOC) through battle-tested AI Agents at enterprise scale.
The new funds will accelerate the adoption of the Torq AI SOC Platform, the only end-to-end solution built on the pillars of advanced Hyperautomation, Alert Triage, and Fatigue Reduction to deliver full operational autonomy for global enterprises and government agencies.
“Torq is redefining security operations,” said Shay Michel, Managing Partner, Merlin Ventures. “They’ve fused automation and human judgment into a new AI SOC Platform built for asymmetric threats and real-world scale. This is why Merlin is leading the investment. Our focus now is speed—accelerating go-to-market, expanding across commercial and government markets, and building the next global category leader in AI security operations.”
Torq Delivers On the Promise of the AI SOC
“This funding accelerates our mission to define and dominate the AI SOC market. We are moving far beyond the constraints of legacy SOAR and SIEM, harnessing the Agentic AI Era to deliver outcomes our customers rely on,” said Ofer Smadari, CEO and co-founder, Torq. “Global enterprise adoption of our AI SOC Platform has validated our vision for the future of security operations. We have achieved tremendous revenue growth, with Fortune 100 customers adopting our AI Agents in their SOCs for everything from investigation to response. Our partnership with Merlin Ventures is the definitive signal that Torq is now ready to scale this massive customer success into the high-stakes Federal and Public Sector markets.”
The Growth Engine: Massive AI Agent Adoption
The primary driver behind Torq’s 2025 growth is the unprecedented adoption of its AI Agents across its global customer base. Unlike legacy security tools that require extensive professional services, Torq AI Agents are designed for self-service, enabling security teams to build and deploy sophisticated agents with minimal effort.
Today, Torq AI Agents are deeply embedded in the daily operations of Fortune 500 SOCs, managing millions of complex security tasks autonomously. This "bottom-up" adoption has transformed Torq from a specialized tool into the primary platform for the modern SOC.
“Torq delivers fast, measurable value to Valvoline’s SOC and eliminates the manual tasks that once consumed our analysts’ time,” said Corey Kaemming, CISO, Valvoline. “Within 48 hours of deployment, our team was using Torq’s AI SOC Platform for automating phishing triage, accelerating alert handling, and reducing response times across the board. The results were transformative. Analysts reclaimed hours of time, containment actions became automatic, and the security team evolved from reactive responders to proactive strategists. Torq took the vision that was in our heads and actually put it into practice. My team is in love with Torq.”
Strategic Expansion Into the Federal Market
Torq's partnership with lead investor Merlin Ventures has accelerated Torq’s traction within the U.S. Federal and Public Sector markets. With nearly 30 years of success bringing technologies to the U.S. government market, Merlin Ventures provides Torq with the strategic support and deep government relationships necessary to navigate complex compliance requirements, including FedRAMP, and rapidly scale the Torq AI SOC Platform to protect the nation's most critical infrastructure.
Explosive Growth and Enterprise Maturity Validation
The Series D affirms Torq’s proven market traction and maturity. In 2025 alone, the company delivered significant customer expansion, demonstrating that the Torq AI SOC Platform is built for complex, multinational security environments. Torq now protects hundreds of multinational enterprises, including Marriott, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Uber, and Virgin Atlantic.
Torq Leads the Shift To AI Agents: Autonomous Investigations and Advanced Automation
Torq is driving this transformation through its singular Agentic AI foundation. In 2025, Torq solidified its market lead by delivering the most advanced multi-agent security capabilities, backed by the strategic acquisition of RevRod. This proven platform empowers SOC teams through two critical product pillars:
“We’re always innovating our security operations approach at Virgin Atlantic and the Torq AI SOC Platform is driving significant benefits for us,” said John White, CISO, Virgin Atlantic. “Today, innovation stems from an AI-first approach, which Torq excels at. Torq is making our security operations simpler and more efficient, and providing us with complete coverage across our security stack. Torq is now our umbrella platform.”
About Torq
Torq is transforming cybersecurity with the Torq AI SOC platform. Torq empowers enterprises to instantly and precisely detect and respond to security events at scale. Torq’s customer base includes major multinational enterprise customers, including Abnormal Security, Armis, Check Point Security, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inditex (Zara, Bershka, and Pull & Bear), Informatica, Kyocera, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Telefonica, Valvoline, Virgin Atlantic, and Wiz.
About Merlin Ventures
Merlin Ventures is the venture capital affiliate of Merlin Group, a network of companies with nearly 30 years of success bringing technologies to the U.S. government market. Merlin Ventures rapidly scales visionary companies and introduces disruptive solutions designed to help enterprises address today's most critical cybersecurity challenges. Its unique business model combines robust infrastructure and capital, technical advisory and engineering advisory, market readiness acceleration, and deep-rooted government and industry relationships that enable its portfolio to rapidly grow and scale. Learn more at merlin.vc.
Torq Secures $140M Series D at $1.2B Valuation to Lead the AI SOC and Agentic AI Era
Ariana Grande, Teyana Taylor, Timothée Chalamet and a sea of other stars said goodbye to color at this year's Golden Globes, opting instead for black. And many in the crowd stuck with tried and true old Hollywood glamour Sunday.
But even in basic black, the red carpet had plenty of personal flourishes and playful embellishments.
Risk-takers Taylor, a winner for “One Battle After Another,” and Jenna Ortega went with “whale tails,” aka the tops of thongs, peeking out the backs of their black gowns. Taylor did it with her custom slinky Schiaparelli gown that showed off a deep low-cut back with a glittery low-hanging bow thong. Ortega, keeping it goth, wore a Dilara Findikoglu gown with black shoulder tassels and a black thong.
“I thought that was such a cheeky callback to Y2K fashion,” InStyle Fashion Director Kevin Huynh said. “I was just like, wow, you wouldn’t expect that on a red carpet.”
Grande left behind her “Wicked” character's signature pink color for a black Vivienne Westwood couture dress but brought back her ponytail. Other notable celebrities in black included Ayo Edebiri, Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus and Mia Goth.
Edebiri chose a black off-the-shoulder Chanel dress embellished with jewels on the shoulders from Matthieu Blazy’s Métiers d’Art 2026 show.
Celebrities held onto their gowns and watched their steps as they posed for photos on high stairs that served as the red carpet. Like the Met Gala, they lined up at the bottom and had to perilously climb their way up.
The 83rd Golden Globes gives a glimpse into how celebrities will showcase their original take on fashion as the awards season progresses. Since 1944, the show has honored the best in film and television.
The carpet, at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, is a chance for nominees to make a statement, though some are beholden to fashion houses who pay them as ambassadors.
Several, including George Clooney, wore Giorgio Armani. The fashion world lost Armani in September, but his eponymous brand lives on.
“It was nice to see so many attendees, including Julia Roberts and Kate Hudson, wearing the brand and pay tribute,” said Véronique Hyland, fashion features director for Elle.
Not all celebrities followed the black dress trend.
Host Nikki Glaser, who held hosting duty for the second time, wore a strapless satin blush-pink corseted satin gown with a full skirt by Zuhair Murad. Emma Stone stunned in a butter yellow Louis Vuitton skirt set.
“Sinners” star Wunmi Mosaku stunned in a flowy yellow Matthew Reisman gown. The mother-to-be revealed her baby bump on the carpet. Mosaku's co-star Hailee Steinfeld showed off her pregnant figure on the carpet in a peach colored gown.
Stars shone in metallics. “Sentimental Value” actor Renate Reinsve twirled on the carpet in a shimmery silver tasseled dress by Nicolas Ghesquiere for Louis Vuitton. Her co-star Elle Fanning's Gucci dress was embroidered with Norwegian flowers in honor of their Norwegian drama film.
Rising star Chase Infiniti reflected back the carpet and all its stars in her mirrored corseted gown by Nicolas Ghesquiere for Louis Vuitton.
“She’s now Louis Vuitton ambassador, which I think kind of shows her potential as a star,” Vanity Fair style writer José Criales-Unzueta said. “So much of what happens behind the scenes helps define what we’re looking at, whether it’s a deal, whether it sponsorship, whether it is brand ambassadorship.”
Claire Danes eschewed the academic, laid-back tailored looks of her “Beast in Me” character for an effortlessly elegant, couture gown designed by her close friend Zac Posen for GapStudio. Posen and Danes’ friendship and creative collaboration began in high school.
Posen began working on Danes' Golden Globe gown in November. As both creative director for Gap and GapStudio designer, Posen told The Associated Press that elevating the American essential into eveningwear is part of his creative process for the brand.
For Danes' look, Posen transformed the concept of the classic Gap pocket T-shirt into an off-white silk jersey couture gown with subtle bugle beaded detailing and embroidery. The shimmering dress featured a low scoop back and front pocket detail.
“Claire has a great elegance to her and is deeply inherently sophisticated, but yet cool,” Posen said. “Those elements fit perfectly with one of our icons that has built and defined our brands, the pocket tee.
Celebrities are keeping the sheer dressing trend alive with no signs of it slowing down. Lisa of Blackpink wore a black sheer Jacquemus dress, and Jennifer Lopez posed in a see-through dress by Jean-Louis Scherrer.
Jennifer Lawrence walked the carpet in a floral sheer dress by Sarah Burton at Givenchy and accessorized her look with a glamorous floral silk stole.
“Just to go out in a naked dress that leaves very little to the imagination is one thing but what Jennifer Lawrence did was such a romantic approach to it,” Huynh said. “I think that really says a lot to Sarah Burton, the designer of Givenchy. She is a woman designing for women.”
The male nominees didn’t stray too far from traditional looks. Colman Domingo pared down his typical colorful suits for a black suit by Valentino adorned with silver leaf brooches down his lapel. Timothée Chalamet, a winner for “Marty Supreme,” has become one to watch for his fashion choices. Departing from his past colorful looks, Chalamet wore a black velvet vest and jacket from Chrome Hearts with black Timberland boots. Chalamet's partner of three years, Kylie Jenner, did not walk the carpet with the actor, but viewers captured her in a custom silver column look by Ashi Studio. It was hand-embroidered with a fan-shaped crystal bead neckline.
After his viral premiere orange look for “Marty Supreme,” Criales-Unzueta said Chalamet decided on a more traditional movie star style by choosing all black.
“Heated Rivalry” star Hudson Williams brought the cummerbund back but with a laid-back twist. The breakout star paired a white-peak lapel dinner jacket with an unbuttoned silk shirt. Williams, along with his co-star Connor Storrie, were presenters during the ceremony. Storrie wore a black tuxedo jacket by Saint Laurent, with black tie and shades.
“It’s really just sexy takes on classic menswear with just those little bit of edge to things,” Huynh said.
Jenna Rosenstein, beauty director for Harper’s Bazaar, noted Storrie's hair transformation. He plastered his trademark curly locks into a shaggy, retro-inspired mullet. Among the women, beauty highlights included the swoopy bobs of Edebiri and Gomez, she said.
“If there’s one thing you should invest in after this carpet, it’s a really good round brush, a can of hairspray and a statement lipstick,” Rosenstein said.
AP writer Leanne Italie contributed to this report.
For more coverage of the 2026 Golden Globe Awards, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/golden-globe-awards
Miley Cyrus arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Ariana Grande arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Ariana Grande arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Connor Storrie arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Colman Domingo arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Ayo Edebiri arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Jenna Ortega arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Jenna Ortega arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Teyana Taylor arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Teyana Taylor arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Justine Lupe arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Brittany Snow arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Brittany Snow arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Wunmi Mosaku arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Lisa arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Ariana Grande arrives at the 31st Annual Critics Choice Awards on Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, at The Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
