Hackers are now using AI to break into company systems faster than ever before. Investors are betting AI is also the only way to stop them.
Exaforce just raised $125 million to prove that bet works. The round values the three-year-old security startup at $725 million.
The Series B drew checks from HarbourVest, Peak XV, Mayfield, Khosla Ventures, and Seligman Ventures.
That's a big check for a company only three years old. It's also the second huge round Exaforce has pulled in inside a year, after a $75 million Series A twelve months ago.
Total funding now sits at $200 million. That's a lot of cash for a three-year-old startup.
The bigger picture: Investors are pouring money into AI-powered security teams. These are the in-house teams a company uses to watch for and stop attacks before they spread.
The check size says two things at once. It costs a lot to build a real AI security tool, and the market for one is huge.
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Exaforce uses AI agents called Exabots to scan for threats in real time. The pitch is to cut the manual work security teams do by as much as 90%.
Why does that matter? Security workers get hundreds of alerts a day, and most of them are false alarms.
Umesh Padval of Seligman Ventures compared the work to looking for a needle in a haystack. "A security operations person gets hundreds of alerts. How do you know what is a real, high-priority alert?" Padval said.
Exaforce also rolled out a feature called vibe hunting. Security teams can ask the AI plain English questions like "did we get any new attacks from Iran?" instead of writing code.
The space is crowded. Rivals include 7ai, Dropzone AI, and Prophet Security.
Giants like Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike are also racing to ship their own AI tools.
Exaforce's edge is its early lead with real customers and a product built for the messiest part of a security team's day.
Exaforce launched its product in the fourth quarter of last year. That came after two years of testing with design partners.
The startup already has 20 customers, including Replit and Guardant Health. CEO Ankur Singla told TechCrunch he expects 40 to 50 by year-end.
Singla said the sales pitch has changed. Buyers no longer ask why they need this kind of tool, and now they just ask how to roll it out.
Singla also said high-profile attacks have made his job easier. With each new public breach, more buyers come asking how to plug AI into their security teams.
The customer pipeline tells you what the funding round already showed. The AI security market is no longer a future bet.
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