Former Google Security Execs Raise $36M to Fight AI Spear Phishing
AegisAI's agentic defense system targets the fivefold surge in AI-generated email attacks that bypass traditional filters.
AegisAI, a security startup founded by former Google executives, has closed a $36 million Series A round led by Battery Ventures with participation from Accel and Foundation Capital. The funding brings total capital to $49 million as the company scales its AI-driven defense against sophisticated spear phishing attacks.
The AI Arms Race in Email Security
AI-generated spear phishing jumped from 2.8% to 13.9% of observed phishing attacks in 2025 alone—a fivefold increase in one year, according to AegisAI's 'State of the AI Threat in Email' study presented at M3AAWG 2026.
"AI-powered attacks bypass existing controls more than half the time now, which means they're almost twice as effective as they used to be," said Cy Khormaee, AegisAI co-founder.
Traditional email security relies on rule-based "if-then" logic that cannot keep pace with attackers using large language models to research targets and craft personalized lures at scale. AegisAI replaces this legacy approach with "agentic" defense: a network of AI agents that analyze messages for subtle anomalies and investigate malicious attachments, including password-protected PDFs, as a human security analyst would.
Built by the Team That Secured Gmail
Khormaee co-founded AegisAI with Ryan Luo, both formerly of Google's security team where they worked on reCAPTCHA, Safe Browsing, and Web Risk. Their background building defenses for Gmail informs the company's approach to the current threat environment.
Early Traction and Expansion Plans
AegisAI has signed customers including Mesh, LangChain, and Lokker. The company plans to use the new capital to expand its agentic investigation capabilities beyond email into broader data security, positioning itself for what investors see as a prolonged AI-driven security arms race.
The $13 million seed round closed in September 2025, meaning AegisAI has raised $49 million in under a year—a signal of investor confidence in the market need for AI-native email defense.