AegisAI, a startup founded by former Google security executives Cy Khormaee and Ryan Luo, raised $36 million on July 23 to combat AI-driven phishing attacks. The company uses AI agents to detect and neutralize spear phishing threats at scale as hackers increasingly automate their attacks.

Email remains the primary attack vector. Hackers now deploy AI to generate convincing fraud messages faster than humans can spot them. AegisAI flips the script: using AI to defend against AI.

The Phishing Escalation

Traditional phishing relied on templates and human copywriting. Modern attacks use generative AI to personalize messages, study company culture, and mimic internal communications perfectly. Success rates have spiked.

Conventional filters catch signature patterns. They fail against novel, AI-generated variations. AegisAI’s approach trains models to understand context, relationships, and behavioral anomalies that betray even sophisticated fakes.

Who’s Investing

The round included participation from top-tier VCs plus security-focused angels. Google Ventures participated, signaling confidence from the company that inspired both founders. That endorsement matters in enterprise sales.

AegisAI joins a crowded market: Proofpoint, Mimecast, Abnormal Security, and others all chase phishing. The difference here is the team’s Google pedigree and the specific focus on AI-generated attacks.

Enterprise Timing

CISO budgets grew in 2026. Boards now demand AI-specific defenses. Investors recognize this as a real category, not hype. Companies burning through phishing attacks see AegisAI as table stakes.

The best defense against AI weapons turns out to be better AI. AegisAI bet on that, and investors agreed.