Kevin Mandia, who founded the cybersecurity startup Mandiant in 2004 and sold it to Google for $5.4 billion in 2022, has launched a new AI-native cybersecurity startup with a record-breaking funding round.
The new company, Armadin, has raised $189.9 million in combined seed and Series A funding led by Accel, with participation from GV, Kleiner Perkins, Menlo Ventures, 8VC, Ballistic Ventures, and the CIA’s venture arm, In-Q-Tel. The total amount is said to be a record for a security startup at such an early stage, though the company hasn’t disclosed its valuation.
While other security startups have previously raised larger Series A rounds, none have done so at such an early stage. In 2019, password-management company 1Password and privacy compliance company OneTrust both raised $200 million in Series A funding. However, 1Password was already 14 years old, and OneTrust was three years old and in growth mode at the time.
Before Armadin, Mandia, a recognized security expert, was a VC at Ballistic Ventures, a security specialist fund co-founded by famed security VC Ted Schlein, formerly of Kleiner Perkins.
Mandia founded Armadin to develop autonomous cybersecurity agents, software designed to learn and respond to threats without human intervention. He told CNBC that he believes autonomous AI hackers are on the horizon and should be feared. Security researchers and government agencies have voiced similar concerns, indicating that AI already facilitates sophisticated attacks.
“When you have AI on offense, it can think, learn, and adapt,” he warned, adding that attacks could be completed in minutes instead of days.
Armadin intends to provide good-guy security experts with automated agents to counter AI-powered attacks run by bad actors. Mandia’s co-founders at Armadin include former Google Cloud Security principal engineer Travis Lanham; former Mandiant exec Evan Peña; and former Google SecOps engineer David Slater.
TechCrunch has reached out to the company for more information.