Israeli startup NOMA Security, the developer of a platform that detects security issues in AI-based applications and agents, said on Thursday it raised $100 million in private funding.
The funding round was led by US venture capital firm Evolution Equity Partners. Existing investors also participated, including ballistic ventures and Israeli venture capital fund Grillot Capital. The Capital Round brings total funds raised to $132 million.
Founded in 2023 by CEO NIV Braun and CTO Alon Tron, the startup, met in Israel's famous 8200 intelligence unit, the startup emerged from stealth in November. The duo has developed a one-stop shop single security platform for AI-driven applications and autonomous agents. This allows businesses to adopt AI by seamlessly automating using AI security. The platform protects everything from critical infrastructure to consumer apps, both proactively and in real time.
Noma said the platform will help Fortune 500 companies “prefer and mitigate large-scale new threats while also identifying risks.”
The fresh capital will be used to further expand startup operations across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and to expand Tel Aviv's products, research and development teams more rapidly. Noma has a workforce of 40 employees, based primarily in Israel and the US.
The rapid development and adoption of AI-based tools, systems and models has introduced new security environments, challenging businesses and managing potential cyber threats and attacks, including data breaches and ransomware. Generated AI applications such as Openai's ChatGpt and Microsoft's Copilot can create complex content, text, audio and video that resemble human creativity, but are increasingly embedded in the company's workplace.
Illustration: Openai logo will be displayed on a mobile phone with images on a computer monitor generated by an image model from ChatGpt Dall-E text on Boston on December 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Michaeldwire)
The latest is the evolution of Agent AI or Virtual AI Agents. It works similarly to a smart assistant, using inference to make real-time decisions and complete complex tasks with minimal human input.
Interest and investment in developing security solutions is that cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated, so attackers are leveraging AI to overturn traditional defenses and leveraging blind spots in corporate and enterprise data and cloud systems.
On Wednesday, Palo Alto Networks, a Santa Clara, California cybersecurity company founded by US-Israeli entrepreneur Nir Zuk, announced it would purchase Israeli company Cyberark with an incredible $25 billion deal.
Noma said the investment was a “critical time as Enterprise Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) compete to protect and govern Agent AI” ahead of the adoption of autonomous assistants in existing software systems, business processes and workflows. Approximately 53% of the organizations surveyed plan to employ agent AI by 2026, while 83% will employ AI agents by 2028, citing UBS research, Noma said.
“The adoption of AI agents is exploding within the customer base, and CISOS understands that AI innovation must be thoughtfully deployed with full guardrails,” Braun said. “NOMA Security is the only cybersecurity vendor that offers an end-to-end platform built to identify and mitigate the unique and sophisticated risks of Agent AI.”
“Alongside our customers and partners, we have built the most comprehensive security and governance solutions for both AI and agents,” he added.
Noma said its annual repeat revenue (ARR) increased by more than 1,300% last year as it recruited dozens of customers across its financial services, life sciences, retail and large-scale technology sectors.
