Protect AI
Seattle, US · Founded 2022 · Delaware corporation · 11 known investors
Find your way into Protect AI
361 people in our graph share verified history with the Protect AI team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.
Ayshaunlockedknows Ian Swanson · together at Oracle (overlapped)
×11knows the team · via Oracle
Protect AI develops security solutions for artificial intelligence systems. The company serves organizations adopting AI technology across multiple industries globally.
Founders & leadership
Protect AI was founded in 2022 by Ian Swanson, Badar Ahmed, and Daryan Dehghanpisheh.
IS
Ian SwansoninCEO & 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.
BA
Badar AhmedinCTO/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.
DD
Daryan DehghanpishehCo-founder
Board
RS
MK
Investors · 11
01 AdvisorsSan Francisco · $1M – $10M
Acrew CapitalSan Francisco · $1M – $15M
Aviso VenturesSeattle
boldstart venturesMiami · $1M – $3Mvia Ed Sim · board
Evolution Equity PartnersNew York · $20M – $150M
Samsung NextSan Jose · $100K – $5M
Evolution TechnologyreportedNew York
Pelion Venturesreported · 2 sourcesSalt Lake City
Salesforce VenturesreportedSan Francisco · $5M – $50M
Stepstone GroupreportedCharlotte
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 TechnologyRule 506(b)
▶$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
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 EarlyAndrew PetersonInvestorFounded FastlyDimitri SirotaInvestorFounded BigIDRuchir PatwaVP of EngineeringFounded Syde LabsNir PolakSeed InvestorFounded Exabeam
+ 1 more
Competitors · 8
by search overlap
Palo Alto Networks139 shared keywordsPalo 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.
Netezza88 shared keywordsIBM is a global technology company whose business spans enterprise software (including Red Hat, HashiCorp, and Confluent), IT infrastructure such as mainframes, servers, and storage, and IT consulting services. The company is also investing heavily in quantum computing and AI-based enterprise offerings, including its Lightwell open-source software security clearinghouse and the Anderon quantum wafer foundry.
Sentinel One68 shared keywordsSentinelOne 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 Software66 shared keywordsCheck 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.
Mindgard64 shared keywordsMindgard 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.
Crowdstrike59 shared keywordsCrowdStrike 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 networks53 shared keywordsProofpoint 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 Turnstile52 shared keywordsCloudflare 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 competing with Protect AI for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
Acquisitions · 1
Early investors' stakes continue via these dealsSyde 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
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, Samsung Next, Evolution Technology, Pelion Ventures and 2 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.