Adaptive Security

Market position

Positioned as an AI-native alternative to legacy security awareness training and email security vendors, marketing itself as the leading provider of AI-powered social engineering prevention. Investor commentary from Bain Capital Ventures frames human-layer security as a board-level priority driven by AI-enabled threat vectors. Third-party aggregation describes the company as backed by a16z and the OpenAI Startup Fund and as a leader in next-generation cybersecurity training, though such characterizations are promotional in nature.

Differentiators cited by the company and coverage include multi-channel deepfake simulations (voice, SMS, video, email) built from open-source intelligence and real employee data rather than generic templates; automatic delivery of personalized remediation training to employees who fail simulations; AI-driven executive and organizational risk scoring; AI-generated custom training content built from a customer's own policies; and the bundling of training, simulation, email security and AI governance in a single connected platform.

Technology

The platform applies generative AI to produce deepfake personas and impersonation scenarios across voice calls, SMS, video and email, seeded with open-source intelligence and company-specific employee data. Other components include real-time triage that analyzes and scores employee-reported suspicious messages, a continuously updated risk model fed by clicks, calls and reports, GenAI tools that generate text, visual and video training content from a topic or internal policy, cloud email security detection tuned for AI-generated attacks, and AI governance monitoring that detects unsanctioned AI tool use and delivers in-browser coaching. Coverage spans 39+ languages with accessibility controls and role-based administrative access.

Go-to-market

Direct enterprise sales driven by demo requests and live chat on the website, supported by published customer case studies segmented by industry and company size, webinars (e.g., "Rethinking Email Security for the AI Era"), a content blog, review-site ratings, and public-relations activity including funding announcements, free public training resources and a promotional collaboration with Conan O'Brien.

Enterprise, mid-market and SMB organizations' security teams across industries including SaaS, financial services, healthcare, construction, manufacturing, retail, hospitality, legal, sports and venture capital. Named customers include PayPal, Xerox, Bose, the National Hockey League, the Professional Golfers' Association, Figma, Ramp, Vimeo, TaylorMade Golf, Perplexity, Plaid, Podium, NerdWallet, Checkr, Attentive, Lennar, Tinuiti, First Round Capital, the Dallas Mavericks, First State Bank, Bay Federal Credit Union and BMC.

Geography

Headquartered in New York, United States; sources describe US-focused customer examples but the training and phishing products are offered in more than 39 languages. No international offices are described in the sources.

History

Following a public launch in January 2025, the company announced a $43 million Series A in April 2025 led by Andreessen Horowitz and the OpenAI Startup Fund — described as OpenAI's first investment in a cybersecurity company — with participation from Abstract Ventures, Eniac Ventures, CrossBeam Ventures, K5 and executives from Google, Workday, Shopify, Plaid and Paxos. At that point it reported more than one hundred enterprise customers. The OpenAI Startup Fund led an additional $12 million follow-on investment announced in September 2025. On December 16, 2025 the company announced an $81 million Series B led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from NVentures (NVIDIA's venture arm), OpenAI Startup Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Abstract Ventures, Capital One Ventures and Citi Ventures, bringing total capital raised to $146.5 million — its third financing announcement of the year.

Risks & controversies

Sources contain inconsistent third-party data: an aggregator lists the founding year as 2023, total funding of $136.0M across two rounds, a $55M Series A led by Ian Hathaway and Andreessen Horowitz, and Sequoia Capital as an investor, none of which match the company's own announcements or trade-press reporting ($43M Series A led by a16z and the OpenAI Startup Fund, a $12M follow-on, and $146.5M total raised). Several traction figures also conflict across the company's own pages (1,000+ security teams versus 1,500+ customers versus 500+ enterprise customers). No litigation, security incidents or other controversies are reported in the sources.