Cisco Systems is in talks to acquire Astrix Security, a five-year-old Israeli cybersecurity startup that sells software to monitor and secure AI agents, for between $250 million and $350 million, according to people with knowledge of the deal. That would represent at least a 25% premium to the startup’s last valuation of around $200 million, one of the people said.

The deal talks come as the popularity of AI agents—AI software that can take actions on behalf of users on their devices—has exploded in recent months. Concerns over the risk these agents pose to companies have led large software vendors to introduce new features that protect clients against this risk or to buy startups with these offerings.