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Prophet Security Secures $30 Million in Series A Funding
Prophet Security, a startup focused on developing autonomous artificial intelligence systems for cybersecurity defense, announced on Tuesday that it has successfully raised $30 million in Series A funding. This investment aims to expedite what the founders term a significant transformation in cybersecurity from human-versus-human confrontations to “agent-versus-agent” warfare. The funding round was led by the venture capital firm Accel, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures. This comes at a time when organizations are grappling with an overwhelming influx of security alerts while sophisticated attackers increasingly utilize AI to enhance and automate their operations.
A New Approach to Cybersecurity
Prophet’s strategy marks a significant shift from the prevalent “copilot” AI tools in the market. Instead, it employs fully autonomous agents capable of investigating and responding to threats without requiring human intervention. “Every security operations team faces a dual mandate of minimizing risk while enhancing operational efficiency,” stated Kamal Shah, co-founder and CEO of Prophet Security, in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “Our Agentic AI SOC Platform tackles both challenges by automating manual, repetitive tasks in security operations with speed, accuracy, and explainability.”
The announcement of the funding coincides with the launch of what Prophet claims to be the industry’s most comprehensive Agentic AI SOC Platform. This new platform expands beyond the initial Prophet AI SOC Analyst to incorporate Prophet AI Threat Hunter and Prophet AI Detection Advisor. It signifies a notable advancement from traditional Security Operations Center (SOC) automation tools, which typically depend on rigid, pre-programmed playbooks.
Addressing the Cybersecurity Crisis
The cybersecurity industry is currently facing a crisis in both capacity and capability. Shah, who previously served as CEO of the container security company StackRox before its acquisition by Red Hat, has witnessed these challenges firsthand. He notes that organizations receive an average of 960 security alerts daily, with up to 40% going uninvestigated due to resource limitations. “The number one complaint I hear from customers every day is the overwhelming number of alerts and the excessive false positives,” Shah explained.
In today’s environment, companies receive an average of 960 alerts each day from various security tools, and 40% of these alerts are ignored simply because there aren’t enough resources to investigate them. This issue is further exacerbated by a critical shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals. Shah highlights a significant talent gap, indicating that there are 5 million open positions in cybersecurity worldwide, creating a situation where organizations with the budget to hire still struggle to find qualified personnel.
Prophet’s Impact on Cybersecurity Operations
Prophet’s solution directly addresses this capacity challenge. Over the past six months, the company’s AI SOC Analyst has conducted more than 1 million autonomous investigations across its customer base, saving an estimated 360,000 hours of investigation time. This has resulted in response times that are ten times faster and a 96% reduction in false positives.
Understanding the difference between Prophet’s “agentic” AI and the copilot models used by larger cybersecurity vendors like CrowdStrike, Microsoft, and Sentinel One is crucial to grasping the company’s value proposition. Traditional copilot systems necessitate human analysts to initiate queries and interpret results, essentially acting as advanced search interfaces for security data. “Copilot is reactive,” Shah noted. “When an alert comes in, a security analyst has to write questions and ask what it means. The analyst remains involved for every alert because they interact with it.”
In contrast, Prophet’s agentic AI proactively starts investigations as soon as an alert is triggered. It autonomously collects evidence, analyzes the data, and draws conclusions without human assistance. The system meticulously documents every step of its investigative process, creating an audit trail that allows security teams to comprehend and verify its reasoning. “What Prophet AI can do is immediately begin the investigation once an alert is triggered,” Shah explained.