Empirical Security, a cybersecurity company specializing in custom AI models, has raised $12 million in seed funding led by Costanoa Ventures, with contributions from DNX Ventures, Sixty Degree Capital, HPA, and strategic investors like Jonathan Cran, Wade Baker, and Gerhard Eschelbeck.
Ed Bellis, co-founder of Kenna Security, is now the CEO of Empirical Security, joining co-founder and CTO Michael Roytman and Chief Data Scientist Jay Jacobs.
Unlike many firms that use generic models, Empirical Security develops custom local models tailored to each organization’s unique data. Their dual model architecture includes:
- Global models trained on nearly 2 million daily exploitation events to detect attacks.
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Local models adapted to specific customer infrastructures.
This approach improves prediction accuracy and aids Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) in making informed cybersecurity decisions.
KEY QUOTES:
“Today’s cyber attacks are custom-built using AI and your own infrastructure against you. Defending with generic, one-size-fits-all models is a start, but only custom, localized models – trained on your data and environment – can close that gap.”
Michael Roytman, Co-founder and CTO of Empirical Security
“We backed Ed, Michael, and Jay at Kenna, where they pioneered the risk-based vulnerability management movement. With Empirical, they’re doing it again—but replacing generic risk scores with local AI models that tailor scores to each enterprise. We’re thrilled to partner with them on what we believe is a 10x bigger opportunity to transform how security teams prioritize and act on risk.”
John Cowgill, General Partner at Costanoa Ventures
