Protect AI, a startup led by former AWS and Oracle AI executives, has raised $35 million in Series A funding to revolutionize AI and ML security. The funding round was led by Evolution Equity Partners, with participation from Salesforce Ventures and existing investors. With a total of $48.5 million raised to date, Protect AI aims to address security blind spots in AI and ML systems, protecting organizations from vulnerabilities, data breaches, and emerging threats.
The explosive growth in supply chain assets and the dynamic nature of ML systems and data workflows make it challenging for organizations to keep track of every asset and element used in their ML systems. Traditional security tools lack visibility into these systems, leaving organizations vulnerable to security risks and threats. Protect AI’s platform, called AI Radar, offers a solution to this problem by providing real-time insights and enabling organizations to monitor, detect, and remediate risks in their ML environments.
AI Radar offers a range of capabilities to help organizations build safer AI. Its visualization layer provides real-time visibility into an ML system’s attack surface, including tools, platforms, models, data, services, and cloud infrastructure. The platform also generates an immutable ML Bill of Materials (MLBOM) that tracks all components and dependencies in the ML system, ensuring complete visibility and auditability in the AI/ML supply chain.
To proactively safeguard ML environments, AI Radar implements continuous integrated security checks. It detects security policy violations, model vulnerabilities, and malicious code injection attacks. The platform also integrates with third-party AppSec and CI/CD orchestration tools, as well as model robustness frameworks.
Richard Seewald, Founder and Managing Partner at Evolution Equity Partners, emphasized the magnitude of the AI/ML security challenge and the lack of solutions from the industry’s largest cybersecurity vendors. He commended Protect AI’s founders for their extensive experience in managing large AI/ML businesses and their vision, technology, and expertise to capture the potential of this new market category.
Protect AI will utilize the new funding to scale its sales and marketing efforts, invest in research and development, and enhance customer success initiatives. As part of the announcement, Richard Seewald has joined the Protect AI Board of Directors.
Protect AI’s innovative approach to AI and ML security has garnered interest from organizations across industries. Mike Carter, CEO of eGroup | Enabling Technologies, praised Protect AI for providing a platform that ensures the safety and security of an organization’s models, data, and code, enabling businesses to adopt AI swiftly and safely.
With its recent funding and a focus on addressing AI and ML security blind spots, Protect AI is poised to make a significant impact in the market. The company’s founders, combined with its accomplished team, position it to capture a substantial share of the growing AI/ML security sector. As AI applications continue to proliferate, organizations can rely on Protect AI’s solutions to protect their ML systems and AI applications from security vulnerabilities, data breaches, and emerging threats.
