Insider Brief
- HiddenLayer, a leading AI security provider, raises $50 million in Series A funding.
- The funding will be used to expand talent, enhance go-to-market efforts, and invest in its Machine Learning Security (MLSec) Platform.
- This marks the largest Series A funding for a cybersecurity company focused on AI protection in 2023, with M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund, and Moore Strategic Ventures leading the investment.
PRESS RELEASE — AUSTIN, Texas — Sept. 19, 2023 — HiddenLayer, the leading security provider for artificial intelligence (AI) models and assets, has raised $50 million in Series A funding to expand its talent base, increase go-to-market efforts, and further invest in its award-winning Machine Learning Security (MLSec) Platform. The investment marks the largest Series A funding raised by a cybersecurity company focused on protecting AI this year, and was led by M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund, and Moore Strategic Ventures, with participation from Booz Allen Ventures, IBM Ventures, Capital One Ventures, and Ten Eleven Ventures.
HiddenLayer consistently demonstrated growth and market leadership since it emerged from stealth in July 2022. The company added to its industry recognition by initiating partnerships with Intel and Databricks, as well as earning accolades such as Most Innovative Startup at RSAC and Most Promising Early-Stage Startup by SC Media. The company nearly quadrupled its headcount over the past year and plans to add 40 more experts to its staff by the end of the year. The company defends Fortune 100 companies’ AI models across several verticals, including finance, government and defense, and cybersecurity.
“AI’s unparalleled rate of adoption fuels us to move even faster in achieving our mission to give every organization the right tools and expertise to leverage AI securely,” said Chris Sestito, CEO and Co-Founder at HiddenLayer. “We know almost every enterprise in the world is already using AI in multiple forms today, but we also know that no other technology has achieved such widespread adoption without security protections in place. We’re committed to creating the most frictionless security solutions on the market to satisfy this unmet need.”
Research from Forrester commissioned by HiddenLayer, shows an overwhelming 96% of organizations find machine learning (ML) to be important or critical to business operations, but, concerningly, the majority of respondents rely on manual processes to address ML model threats. In response, 80% of respondents want to invest in a solution that manages ML model integrity and security in the next 12 months.
HiddenLayer’s MLSec Platform consists of a suite of products that provide comprehensive security for AI to protect ML models against adversarial attacks, vulnerabilities, and malicious code injections. Each product deployed within MLSec has been designed with unique strengths and capabilities for detection and response, culminating in a multifaceted defensive approach.
HiddenLayer’s flagship Machine Learning Detection and Response (MLDR) product provides a noninvasive, software-based approach to monitoring the inputs and outputs of AI algorithms. MLDR offers real-time defense to an otherwise unprotected asset and flexible response options, including alerting, isolation, profiling, and misleading.
“Inspired by their own experience with an adversarial AI attack, HiddenLayer’s founders built an essential platform for any enterprise working with AI and ML,” said Todd Graham, Managing Partner at M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund. “Their first-hand knowledge of these attacks, combined with their vision and novel approach, position the company as the go-to solution to protect these models. From the moment we met the founders, we knew this was a big idea in security and wanted to help them scale.”
“As AI continues to proliferate society, Booz Allen is on the front lines of developing and supplying solutions to governments and enterprise that are secure. This is paramount to protecting national security, extending economic power, and enabling companies in competitive markets,” said Travis Bales, Managing Director at Booz Allen Ventures. “HiddenLayer’s powerful platform and expert team has proven effective in securing AI from a broad range of threats, so we quickly identified them as a partner that can support and protect our AI deployments. From our early discussions, it was clear to us that the HiddenLayer team has the vision and execution to continue developing security for the emerging AI market.”
About HiddenLayer
HiddenLayer, a Gartner-recognized AI Application Security company, helps enterprises safeguard the machine learning models behind their most important products with a comprehensive security platform. Only HiddenLayer offers turnkey AI security that does not add unnecessary complexity to models and does not require access to raw data and algorithms. Founded in March of 2022 by experienced security and ML professionals, HiddenLayer is based in Austin, Texas. For additional information, including product updates and the latest research reports, visit www.hiddenlayer.com.
About Moore Strategic Ventures
Moore Strategic Ventures, LLC is the privately held investment company of Louis M. Bacon, Founder and CEO of Moore Capital Management, LP.
About Ten Eleven Ventures
Ten Eleven Ventures is the original cybersecurity-focused, global, stage agnostic investment firm. The firm finds, invests, and helps grow top cybersecurity companies addressing critical digital security needs, tapping its team, network, and experience to help build successful businesses. Since its founding, Ten Eleven Ventures has raised over $US 1 billion and made over 45 cybersecurity investments across stages worldwide, including KnowBe4, Darktrace, Axis Security, Twistlock, Verodin, Cylance, and Ping Identity. For more information, please visit www.1011vc.com.
