AegisAI Raises $36 Million to Combat AI-Driven Phishing: Startup Founded by Former Google Security Leaders

Hackers are increasingly employing AI for large-scale attacks, targeting email as a primary vector. AI can rapidly collect personal information—about colleagues, active projects, and recent trips—and instantly craft convincing messages. Last year, former Google security executives Cy Khormaee and Ryan Luo, who worked on safe browsing and reCAPTCHA technologies, launched AegisAI, a startup that uses AI agents to combat threats like targeted phishing. The co-founders, with a decade of experience protecting email from breaches, realized that existing rule-based systems operating on an if-then principle were too slow and ineffective against AI-generated emails. They developed AI agents that analyze each message like a human, spotting subtle anomalies that the most complex checklists miss. Less than a year after launch, AegisAI's technology is already used by dozens of clients, including crypto company Mesh, AI startup LangChain, and privacy platform Lokker. Demand helped AegisAI raise $36 million in a Series A round led by Battery Ventures with participation from Accel and Foundation Capital, bringing total funding to $49 million. According to Khormaee, AI-powered attacks now bypass existing defense systems in more than half of cases and are nearly twice as effective as previous ones. Attackers study the victim and create perfectly tailored attacks. AegisAI can detect malicious PDF attachments that appear legitimate, including those with passwords and CAPTCHAs that fool standard spam filters. Dharmesh Thakker from Battery Ventures noted the rise in email attacks and decided to invest in a startup that defends against AI with AI and aims to replace outdated protection tools. He believes that defending against such attacks will become a top priority for many companies. AegisAI is not the only startup using contextual email analysis to detect fraud. Lightspeed-backed Ocean is also trying to displace Proofpoint, Mimecast, and Abnormal Security. However, according to Thakker, AegisAI's advantage lies in the founders' experience helping to secure Gmail. Looking ahead, the startup plans to expand into other areas of protection, such as data security.