- Horizon3.ai has raised $250 million in a Series E funding round, lifting its valuation to over $2 billion, up from $650 million a year ago.
- The funding round was co-led by NightDragon and NEA, with participation from new and returning investors.
- Horizon3.ai positions its funding as part of cybersecurity's next war where AI fights AI.
- Horizon3.ai closed its Series D funding round at a valuation of $650 million approximately a year prior to the Series E.
- NodeZero, Horizon3.ai's platform, conducts autonomous penetration testing to identify vulnerabilities in customer networks.
- Annual recurring revenue for Horizon3.ai has grown 120% year-over-year, with over 6,500 organizations now using its services.
Horizon3.ai, a San Francisco-based cybersecurity startup, has successfully raised $250 million in a Series E funding round, elevating its valuation to over $2 billion. This marks a significant increase from $650 million just a year ago, reflecting the growing demand for its innovative solutions in the face of escalating cyber threats.12567
The funding round, co-led by NightDragon and NEA, aims to bolster Horizon3.ai's sales operations and facilitate its expansion into Australia and Singapore. The company’s autonomous penetration testing platform, NodeZero, is already utilized by over 6,500 organizations, including the U.S. National Security Agency and several Fortune 10 companies.348910
CEO Snehal Antani emphasized the urgency of proactive cybersecurity measures, stating, “The future of cyber warfare is fundamentally AI fighting AI.” He noted that the speed of cyberattacks is accelerating, with a recent demonstration showing that Horizon3.ai's AI compromised a bank in just 77 seconds. This rapid evolution underscores the necessity for organizations to adapt quickly to emerging threats.
The Series E funding will also support the development of autonomous blue-team agents, which will remediate vulnerabilities identified by NodeZero without human intervention. Antani remarked, “Every single time our AI hacker runs a penetration test, it's collecting training data that literally nobody else has.” This data-centric approach positions Horizon3.ai as a leader in the evolving landscape of cybersecurity.
With annual recurring revenue growing 120% year-over-year and over 300,000 pentests conducted, Horizon3.ai is poised to redefine how organizations defend their data against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
“NightDragon and NEA co-led the round as NodeZero's customer base grew to more than 6,500 organizations, including the NSA, CISA and four Fortune 10 companies, with annual recurring revenue up 120%. Antani said Horizon3.ai spent six years earning the right to autonomously pentest 'the most critical and sensitive networks in the world.'”
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