AegisAI secures $36 million Series A to counter AI-driven spear phishing
The cybersecurity firm, backed by Battery Ventures, brings total capital raised to $49 million as it targets the growing threat of bespoke, AI-crafted email attacks.
AegisAI, a cybersecurity startup founded by former Google security executives Cy Khormaee and Ryan Luo, has raised $36 million in a Series A funding round led by Battery Ventures. The investment brings the company’s total capital to $49 million, with participation from existing backers Accel and Foundation Capital. The firm utilises AI agents to detect and prevent sophisticated spear phishing attacks, aiming to displace traditional rule-based email security systems that are increasingly ineffective against automated threats.
Hackers are increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence to launch attacks at scale, with email serving as a primary target. AI tools can rapidly aggregate personal information, such as details about coworkers, active projects, and travel itineraries, allowing bad actors to craft bespoke messages that appear authentic. Khormaee noted that AI-powered attacks now bypass existing controls more than half the time, making them nearly twice as effective as previous methods.
To counter this, AegisAI developed AI agents that analyse each message with a human-like approach, identifying small anomalies that standard checklists might miss. The startup claims its technology has been adopted by dozens of customers, including crypto payments company Mash, AI startup LangChain, and Google-owned privacy compliance platform Lokker. The company’s agents are designed to catch threats that traditional systems may overlook, such as malicious PDF attachments featuring built-in passwords and CAPTCHAs intended to fool spam filters.
Battery Ventures general partner Dharmesh Thakker cited the accelerating pace of AI-driven email attacks as a key driver for the investment. He stated that defending against these threats is becoming a top priority for many companies, as attackers utilise email to strike at a faster rate than defenders can respond. Thakker believes AegisAI, led by experts who previously worked on safe browsing technology and reCAPTCHA at Google, has a strong position to become a leading hack-prevention company.
The cybersecurity market is competitive, with rivals such as Lightspeed-backed Ocean, Proofpoint, Mimecast, and Abnormal Security also employing AI to detect fraud and impersonation. While AegisAI is currently focused on email security, the startup plans to expand its capabilities into broader data security areas. Khormaee said the core idea of building customised, highly advanced agents for investigations will determine which firm becomes the next dominant player in the security sector.
