Cybercriminals are increasingly using AI in their attacks. At the same time, cyber defenders are also turning to the technology to fight back. Depthfirst, a security startup positioning itself at the forefront of this AI-powered defense, announced that it had raised 40 million dollars in a Series A funding round.
Founded in October 2024, the company raised the round from Accel Partners, which led the investment. The round also saw participation from SV Angel, Mantis VC, and AltCapital. Depthfirst offers a platform called General Security Intelligence, an AI-native suite that helps companies scan and analyze their codebases and workflows for signs of trouble. The company states that the platform also allows companies to protect themselves from credential exposures and to monitor threats to their open-source and third-party components.
The company plans to use the new capital to hire additional staff for applied research and engineering, as well as for product and sales. Qasim Mithani, the company’s co-founder and CEO, said, “We’ve entered an era where software is written faster than it can be secured.” Mithani, who previously worked for Databricks and Amazon, added that automation has changed how bad actors execute their attacks. “AI has already changed how attackers work. Defense has to evolve just as fundamentally.”
The company’s leadership comes with backgrounds in both AI and security. One of Depthfirst’s other co-founders, Daniele Perito, previously served as director of security and risk engineering at Square, which is part of Jack Dorsey’s Block. Its CTO and another co-founder, Andrea Michi, was previously an engineer at Google DeepMind.
Just as AI can be used for legitimate purposes, it can also be used by cybercriminals to automate a whole range of malicious processes. These include writing malware, conducting social engineering attacks, and scanning for vulnerabilities to exploit. Last November, Anthropic claimed that it had thwarted the first AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign.
Depthfirst says it can help protect companies from many of these AI-driven exploits, and that it has already developed partnerships with a number of prominent companies, including AngelList, Lovable, and Moveworks.