Who founded Protect AI?

Protect AI was founded by Ian Swanson, Badar Ahmed, Daryan Dehghanpisheh in 2022.

Who are Protect AI's investors?

Protect AI's investors include 01 Advisors, Acrew Capital, Aviso Ventures, boldstart ventures, Evolution Equity Partners, In-Q-Tel, Samsung Next, Spire Capital Partners and 4 more.

How much funding has Protect AI raised?

Protect AI has disclosed $94.3M raised across 2 of its 3 known rounds.

Where is Protect AI headquartered?

Protect AI is headquartered in Seattle, US.

Protect AI

Seattle, US · Founded 2022 · Delaware corporation · 13 known investors

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Protect AI develops security solutions for artificial intelligence systems. The company serves organizations adopting AI technology across multiple industries globally.

AI & Machine Learning Cybersecurity Enterprise Software

Founders & leadership

Protect AI was founded in 2022 by Ian Swanson, Badar Ahmed, and Daryan Dehghanpisheh.

Ian Swanson CEO & Founder (Acquired by Palo Alto Networks)Previously, he led AI and machine learning strategy at Amazon Web Services and Oracle, founded DataScience.com (acquired by Oracle in 2018), and built Sometrics, a virtual currency platform acquired by American Express in 2011.

Badar Ahmed CTO/CPO and Founder2022–2025Badar Ahmed co-founded Protect AI, which develops security solutions for AI and ML systems. He previously led engineering teams at Oracle Cloud Data Science service where he built ML products including Notebooks, Model Catalog, and Managed ML Inference, and prior to that worked as an engineering leader at ML startup DataScience.com; he also conducted research at Caltech on the Large Hadron Collider project in collaboration with CERN, building data infrastructure for petabyte-scale datasets.

Daryan DehghanpishehFounder

Board

Richard Seewald Member, Board of Directors2023–2025Founder and Managing Partner at Evolution Equity Partners

Mark Kraynak Board DirectorInvestor at Aspect Ventures

Ed Sim Investor/BoardFounder and General Partner at boldstart ventures

Investors · 13

01 Advisorslisted by 01 AdvisorsSan Francisco · $1M – $10M

How we know: the VCSheet dataset · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Acrew Capitallisted by Acrew CapitalSan Francisco · $1M – $15M

How we know: Acrew Capital's portfolio page · a partner's Signal profile · funding news · iconoutlook.com · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Aviso Ventureslisted by Aviso VenturesSeattle

How we know: Aviso Ventures's portfolio page · iconoutlook.com · Not right? Tell us

boldstart ventureslisted by boldstart venturesMiami · $1M – $3Mvia Ed Sim · board

How we know: boldstart ventures's portfolio page · board seat on SEC Form D · funding news · iconoutlook.com · Not right? Tell us

Evolution Equity Partnerslisted by Evolution Equity PartnersNew York · $20M – $150M

How we know: Evolution Equity Partners's portfolio page · funding news · the VCSheet dataset · Not right? Tell us

In-Q-Tellisted by In-Q-TelTysons · $100K – $2.5M

How we know: In-Q-Tel's portfolio page · Not right? Tell us

Samsung Nextlisted by Samsung NextSan Jose · $100K – $5M

How we know: Samsung Next's portfolio page · the VCSheet dataset · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Spire Capital Partnerslisted by Spire Capital PartnersWest Conshohocken · $15M – $125M

Sterling Investmentlisted by Sterling InvestmentGreenwich · $100M – $450M

How we know: Sterling Investment's portfolio page · Not right? Tell us

Pelion VenturesreportedSalt Lake City

How we know: funding news · iconoutlook.com · Not right? Tell us

Salesforce VenturesreportedSan Francisco · $5M – $50M

How we know: funding news · Not right? Tell us

Stepstone GroupreportedCharlotte

How we know: funding news · Not right? Tell us

Also in the syndicate · 1

Knollwood Capital

Funding

SEC filings, press & company announcements

$94.3M disclosed across 2 of 3 rounds · 2022–2024

$13.5Mseed financingDec 2022 · 2 sources
Acrew Capital (lead), Boldstart Ventures (lead), Aviso Ventures, Knollwood Capital, Pelion Ventures
Source ↗

▶$80.8MraisedAug 2024 · 18 investors · Other Technology

Rule 506(b)

Officers, directors & promoters on the filing

Ian SwansonExecutive Officer, Director, Promoter
Badar AhmedDirector
Daryan DehghanpishehDirector
Richard SeewaldDirector
Mark KraynakDirector
Ed SimDirector

Offering amount: $80.8M
Amount sold: $80.8M
First sale: Jul 2024
Incorporated: Corporation, Delaware, 2022
Federal exemptions: 06b

Full filing on SEC EDGAR ↗

Source: SEC EDGAR Form D. Amounts as filed; amended filings shown once at their latest values.

Founder mafia

The Protect AI mafia →

6 people who came through Protect AI went on to found or lead other companies.

Mark KraynakDirectorFounded Early Andrew PetersonInvestorFounded Fastly Dimitri SirotaInvestorFounded BigID Ruchir PatwaVP of EngineeringFounded Syde Labs Ian SwansonFounderFounded Oracle Nir PolakSeed InvestorFounded Exabeam

Related companies · 7

Palo Alto NetworksPalo Alto Networks provides cybersecurity platforms and services to protect organizations' digital infrastructure across cloud, network, and security operations. The company serves enterprise organizations, governments, financial institutions, utilities, and healthcare providers globally.

Sentinel OneSentinelOne provides an AI-powered cybersecurity platform for enterprises that integrates endpoint protection, threat detection, and incident response capabilities. The company serves large enterprises, including many Fortune 500 organizations, to protect against cyber threats at scale.

Check Point SoftwareCheck Point Software Technologies is a cybersecurity company providing security products and solutions. This page is its investor relations section, containing annual reports, SEC filings, financial results, and corporate governance information.

MindgardMindgard provides AI security solutions that help enterprises identify, assess, and mitigate threats across AI models, agents, and applications throughout the AI lifecycle. The platform uses offensive security techniques to help organizations understand exposure and reduce risk from AI-driven threats.

CrowdStrikeCrowdStrike provides an AI-native cybersecurity platform that unifies endpoint, identity, cloud, SaaS, and AI protection to detect and stop breaches for enterprise organizations. It combines automated response with human-led security operations including managed detection and response, threat hunting, and security services.

illusive networksProofpoint offers a suite of enterprise security and compliance products that protect people, email, cloud apps, and data from human-centric cyber threats using machine learning and AI. Its tools also cover data loss prevention, communications archiving, e-discovery, compliance supervision, identity threat detection, and security awareness training.

Cloudflare, Inc.Cloudflare provides a global cloud network platform delivering security, performance, and development services through sixty-plus integrated services including SASE, application security, and full-stack development infrastructure.

Companies working in the same space as Protect AI.

Acquisitions · 1

Early investors' stakes continue via these deals

Syde Labs

AI-security startup that built SydeBox (automated red-teaming / vulnerability assessment for generative AI) and SydeGuard (runtime firewall). Acquired by Protect AI in July 2024; that product was later folded into Protect AI Recon, and Protect AI was subsequently acquired by Palo Alto Networks.

In the news

Protect AI raises $35M to build a suite of AI-defending tools | TechCrunchtechcrunch.com · Jul 2023

Protect AI Raises $13.5M in Seed Fundingfinsmes.com · Dec 2022

Frequently asked questions

What does Protect AI do?: Protect AI develops security solutions for artificial intelligence systems. The company serves organizations adopting AI technology across multiple industries globally.
Who founded Protect AI?: Protect AI was founded by Ian Swanson, Badar Ahmed, Daryan Dehghanpisheh in 2022.
Who are Protect AI's investors?: Protect AI's investors include 01 Advisors, Acrew Capital, Aviso Ventures, boldstart ventures, Evolution Equity Partners, In-Q-Tel, Samsung Next, Spire Capital Partners and 4 more.
How much funding has Protect AI raised?: Protect AI has disclosed $94.3M raised across 2 of its 3 known rounds.
Where is Protect AI headquartered?: Protect AI is headquartered in Seattle, US.