Update: This story was previously published with the funding amount being $7.5 million, but it was revised to be $8 million instead.
Terra Security, an Agentic AI-native penetration testing service-as-software platform, announced it has raised $8 million in a seed round led by SYN Ventures and FXP Ventures with participation from Underscore VC and notable angel investors, including former Google CISO Gerhard Eschelback and Ofer Ben-Noon and Ohad Bobrov, founders of Talon Security.
Organizations often struggle to set up continuous penetration testing or red teaming, simulations that uncover vulnerabilities before attackers exploit them. But despite their promising potential, the ethical hacking mechanisms are vastly underutilized due to their human-intensive nature, which makes them slow, expensive, and unscalable.
Built to think like a white hat hacker, Terra’s agentic AI platform conducts continuous web application pen testing. Powered by dozens of fine-tuned AI agents, each personalized to a client’s unique environment, Terra’s agents adapt based on unique business contexts and risks in real time. When new vulnerabilities surface, the agents autonomously launch precise tests guided by human experts through a human-in-the-loop mechanism for maximum accuracy and reliability with AI.
Existing automated solutions fail to mimic an adversary’s behavior at scale, particularly for web applications. Terra’s AI-enabled service combines the accuracy and depth of skilled human testers with the scale and efficiency of automated solutions. As Terra grows, it plans to introduce an agentic AI red teaming solution to its platform and expand to cover organizations’ network security.
What the funding will be used for: Terra will use the funds to advance its platform, expand the capabilities of its AI agents, and grow its customer base.
KEY QUOTES:
“In the grand scheme of cybersecurity, ethical hacking has long been underutilized due to its inefficiencies and human dependencies, but we now have the opportunity to bring ethical hacking center stage and beat adversaries at their own arena. We strongly believe that our platform will transform the narrative around pen testing and ethical hacking by infusing accuracy, efficiency, business context, and continuous pen-testing via agentic AI. No longer will pen-testing simply be viewed as an item on a compliance checklist, but as the most effective security capability of a robust security posture. We are grateful for all the support and guidance we’ve received from our investors, partners, and customers, and look forward to the journey ahead.”
- Shahar Peled, CEO and Co-Founder of Terra
“We are thrilled to partner with Terra Security as it works to enable all organizations to leverage high-quality offensive security on a continuous basis, at scale. We believe the Company’s vision reimagines penetration testing as we know it today, which is long overdue.”
- Jay Leek, Managing Partner and Founder at SYN Ventures
“Cyber threats move fast and manual pen testing can’t keep up. We backed Terra Security from day one because of its founders – an exceptional team with the rare mix of deep technical chops and relentless execution. Together, we validated the problem and approach through over 100 customer interactions to arrive at our conviction. They’re not just improving penetration testing; they’re redefining it with AI employees who work 24/7, guided by top-tier human expertise. It’s not man vs machine. It’s man plus machine. That’s the future.”
- Tsahy Shapsa, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at FXP
