Google LLC today announced its second growth academy for cybersecurity startups, with this year’s program taking in 17 promising startups across Europe and the U.S. that are using artificial intelligence technology to innovate in the cybersecurity market.

The first Google for Startups Growth Academy: Cybersecurity program was launched last year and featured 15 European cybersecurity security startups that received the best of Google’s security tools, practices and connections. The program saw a 4.7/5 CAST founder satisfaction rating, with startups receiving support from 27 Google mentors, including over 60 hours of one-on-one in-person and online mentoring.

This year’s program has a longer title — Growth Academy: AI for Cybersecurity — and as the name suggests, it has a focus on AI in cybersecurity. Google’s reasoning behind the move, other than the obvious and well-documented embrace of AI over the last year, is that the search giant believes that AI has “become one of the sharpest tools for startups to innovate and transform the industry to bring meaningful and positive change to people across the world.”

The 17 new startups named today will join the three-month program, which officially kicks off today at the Google Safety Center in Munich. In the following months, each startup will work one-on-one with Google AI and cybersecurity experts through personalized workshops and mentoring seasons to grow their businesses.

The 17 startups include:

• Alma Security Inc. (New York, U.S.): Provides app protection without requiring code changes, ensuring end-to-end security.
• Authologic sp. z o.o. (Warsaw, Poland): Builds a global e-ID hub via API for government-issued digital IDs and identity wallets.
• BforeAI (Montpellier, France): Aims to predict cyberattacks and defend against fake websites or accounts.
• Blacklight (London, UK): Utilizes AI to identify and prevent cyber threats.
• Cesare.ai (Paris, France): Transforms large language modesls into professional tools for secure, industry-specific AI solutions.
• Cakewalk Technology GmbH (Berlin, Germany): Simplifies access management with automated requests and secure on-/offboarding.
• Ethiack lda (Coimbra, Portugal): An autonomous ethical hacking platform that identifies vulnerabilities and fixes them.
• Gomboc.ai Inc. (New York, U.S.): Automatically corrects cloud security problems, including policy violations.
• HACKERverse (Chicago, U.S.): An AI-driven cybersecurity marketplace and community for exploring solutions.
• Kriptos Inc. (Miami, U.S.): Analyzes, classifies, and labels documents automatically to prevent data leakage.
• LetsData Inc. (Dover, U.S.): Offers AI-powered real-time monitoring against disinformation.
• Nijta SAS (Lille, France): Uses AI to anonymize voices in customer call recordings for privacy.
• Patchstack OÜ (Pärnu, Estonia): Focuses on the lifecycle of open-source security from vulnerability identification to mitigation.
• Quantum Dice Ltd. (Oxford, UK): Leverages quantum properties of light for secure encryption through Quantum Random Number Generation.
• ShareID Inc. (Neuilly-sur-Seine, France): Provides an authentication-as-a-service solution using government IDs and facial scans for security.
• Talsec (Brno, Czech Republic): Develops tools for app developers to protect apps from hackers and malware.
• Zepo (Madrid, Spain): Offers an integrated AI solution to mitigate human risk in cybersecurity.

Photo: Google