Artificial intelligence is transforming cybersecurity on both sides of the battlefield. As attackers use AI to create increasingly convincing phishing campaigns, security companies are racing to develop equally advanced defenses capable of identifying threats before they reach employees.
AegisAI, a cybersecurity startup founded by former Google security executives Cy Khormaee and Ryan Luo, has raised $36 million in Series A funding to expand its AI-powered platform designed to detect and stop sophisticated spear phishing attacks.
The round was led by Battery Ventures, with participation from existing investors Accel and Foundation Capital, bringing the company’s total funding to $49 million.
Building AI to Fight AI
Khormaee and Luo previously worked on some of Google’s most widely used security technologies, including Safe Browsing and reCAPTCHA. Drawing on years of experience protecting billions of users, they launched AegisAI in 2025 after recognizing that traditional rule-based email security systems were struggling to keep pace with AI-generated threats.
Rather than relying on predefined rules and static detection methods, AegisAI uses autonomous AI agents that evaluate incoming emails much like a human security analyst would. The platform examines context, language, attachments, and subtle behavioral signals to identify malicious messages that conventional filters may overlook.
According to the company, modern AI-powered phishing campaigns can rapidly gather publicly available information about employees, projects, travel schedules, and organizational structures, allowing attackers to create highly personalized emails that appear legitimate.
Growing Enterprise Adoption
Despite being less than a year old, AegisAI says its platform has already been adopted by dozens of organizations, including Mesh, LangChain, and Lokker.
The company’s technology is designed to detect sophisticated threats such as password-protected PDF attachments, embedded CAPTCHA pages, and other techniques increasingly used to bypass traditional email security solutions.
As enterprises continue integrating AI into everyday operations, protecting employees from AI-assisted social engineering attacks is becoming an increasingly important cybersecurity priority.
A Competitive AI Security Market
The latest funding will support product development and continued customer growth as AegisAI expands its AI-driven security platform.
The company enters a competitive market alongside vendors including Ocean, Proofpoint, Mimecast, and Abnormal Security, all of which are investing in AI-powered email protection. However, AegisAI believes its founders’ experience building security technologies at Google provides a strong foundation for developing next-generation threat detection.
Looking ahead, the company also plans to extend its AI agent architecture beyond email security into broader areas such as data protection and enterprise security operations.
As AI continues to reshape the cybersecurity landscape, companies like AegisAI are betting that defending against intelligent attacks will increasingly require intelligent security systems of their own.