imper.ai Launches With $28M in Funding to Pioneer Real-Time Defense Against AI-Driven Impersonation and Social Engineering Cyber Attacks

Insider Brief

  • imper.ai launched publicly with $28 million in new funding to advance its real-time impersonation prevention platform across major communication tools.
  • The company targets rising threats from deepfakes and social-engineering attacks by analyzing device, network, and behavioral signals that are difficult for attackers to fake.
  • Funding will support its mission to help enterprises prevent identity-based cyberattacks before they occur, protecting trust and business continuity at the point of first contact.

PRESS RELEASE — imper.ai, a pioneer in real-time cyber impersonation prevention, announced its public launch and $28 million in new funding from Redpoint Ventures and Battery Ventures, with participation from Maple VC, Vessy VC, and Cerca Partners. The company’s platform detects impersonation risk in real-time, ensuring privacy and accuracy across the most commonly used communication platforms such as Zoom, Teams, Slack, and more. imper.ai detects malicious behavior that traditional tools miss by analyzing multiple security signals across network devices and digital personas.

A social-engineering ransomware breach at Marks & Spencer halted online orders, disrupted store operations and supply chains, and is now projected to cost the company roughly $380 million in profit this year. The FBI reported that business email compromise scams cost companies $2.8 billion last year alone. We see how deepfakes and voice clones have made impersonation nearly effortless, part of a wave of AI-driven attacks that Deloitte estimates could reach $40 billion in annual losses in the U.S. by 2027. AI-generated fakes and human-driven manipulation have turned identity into the modern attack surface, exposing the limits of identity and content filtering tools.

A recent social-engineered attack using fake credentials on Jaguar Land Rover shut down production and critical IT systems, leading to estimated losses of $1.5 billion. The FBI reported that business email compromise scams cost companies $2.8 billionlast year alone. We see how deepfakes and voice clones have made impersonation nearly effortless, part of a wave of AI-driven attacks that Deloitte estimates could reach $40 billion in annual losses in the U.S. by 2027. AI-generated fakes and human-driven manipulation have turned identity into the modern attack surface, exposing the limits of identity and content filtering tools.

“AI-driven impersonation has become one of the biggest drivers of financial loss and reputational risk for enterprises,” said Noam Awadish, Co-Founder and CEO of imper.ai. “Gartner expects that by 2027, half of all enterprises will invest in anti-deepfake and disinformation-security tools, a clear sign this is no longer a niche issue. We built imper.ai to help CISOs strengthen their defenses and focus on prevention instead of crisis response.”

Founded by cyber-intelligence veterans Noam Awadish (CEO, formerly Chief of Staff to the EVP of Autonomous Vehicles at Mobileye), Anatoly Blighovsky (CPO, former head of 2 cyber divisions and CISO of elite intelligence unit 8200), and Rom Dudkiewicz (CTO, vulnerability researcher and section leader at elite intelligence unit 8200), imper.ai delivers real-time impersonation detection and prevention at the first point of contact, across video, phone, or chat. Rather than scanning content for irregularities, it scans and analyzes the digital breadcrumbs attackers cannot fake: device telemetry, network diagnostics, and behavioral markers cross-referenced with unique organizational knowledge. Unlike tools that scan content for anomalies, imper.ai’s first-of-its-kind agentless platform runs silently across systems such as Zoom, Teams, Slack, WhatsApp, Google Workspace, ATS, and IT Help Desk systems, enabling trust without disrupting workflows.

“Social engineering attacks have become one of the toughest challenges in cybersecurity because people can no longer tell who’s real and who’s not,” said Erica Brescia, Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures. “What stood out about imper.ai is how naturally it solves that problem. It gives companies the confidence that every call, message, and interaction is authentic, protecting trust, privacy, and business continuity at the same time.”

“Impersonation isn’t just a feature of modern attacks — it’s becoming the primary threat vector,” said Barak Schoster, partner at Battery Ventures, and board member of imper.aiimper.ai is building what we believe will be a foundational layer of enterprise security: real-time verification at the point where human trust is most vulnerable. This is a category-defining company in the making. We’re proud to back this exceptional team.”

About:

imper.ai prevents AI-driven impersonation and social engineering attacks at the first point of contact. Its real-time impersonation prevention platform analyzes the digital breadcrumbs hackers cannot fake, device telemetry, network signals, and behavioral patterns correlated with unique organizational knowledge, so that enterprises can trust every interaction. Agentless, privacy-first, and seamless across communication platforms, imper.ai brings confidence and trust back to digital communications in the GenAI era. For more details, visit us at imper.ai.

Contact:

Yuval Porat
Media Consultant
yuval@tellny.com

SOURCE

Featured image: Credit: imper.ai

Need Deeper Intelligence on the AI Market?

AI Insider's Market Intelligence platform tracks funding rounds, competitive landscapes, and technology trends across the global AI ecosystem in real time. Get the data and insights your organization needs to make informed decisions.

Related Articles

The 20 Enterprise AI Infrastructure & MLOps CEOs You Need to Know in 2026

Every enterprise AI deployment, from the simplest classifier to the most complex agentic system, depends on infrastructure. The CEOs building that infrastructure are, in many

Amazon Replaces Rufus With Alexa for Shopping, an AI Assistant That Buys Across the Web on Your Behalf

Amazon has launched Alexa for Shopping, a personalised AI shopping assistant powered by Alexa+ that replaces its previous generative AI tool Rufus. Now available to

a female mannequin is looking at a computer screen
Beyond Threats: AI Researchers Call for Systems Designed to Support Human Flourishing

Insider Brief A new paper from researchers affiliated with Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic and several universities reports that the artificial intelligence industry is too focused

Stay Updated with AI Insider

Get the latest AI funding news, market intelligence, and industry insights delivered to your inbox weekly.

$ 0 M

Seed round tracked

Gitar — Code Validation

Get the Weekly Briefing

Funding analysis, market intelligence, and industry trends delivered to your inbox every week.

Need bespoke intelligence?

Our team combines real-time data with decades of sector experience to guide your decisions.

Subscribe today for the latest news about the AI landscape