Aurascape Inc., the provider of real-time security for artificial intelligence applications, launched today with the announcement it has raised $50 million in funding to support its platform designed for comprehensive AI protection.

Founded in 2023, Aurascape offers a purpose-built platform driven by what it calls an AI-native engine that provides visibility into the network and employee use of AI apps to provide data security and observability.

Since OpenAI released ChatGPT the potential of AI has exploded in popularity and the adoption of AI applications has continued to reach further into the enterprise workplace. AI promises considerable incentives for workers such as creative boosts, time savings and productivity gains, but it’s difficult to avoid its impact.

This increased adoption of AI also brings potential issues with privacy, security and new AI-driven threats. Sensitive data fed through into an AI app could lead to it being exposed to unknown parties, it can also be used for AI training without consent. Running an AI model or app adds an extra layer for cybersecurity teams to worry about that attackers can exploit.

A report from market analyst McKinsey & Company revealed that employees are three times more likely to use generative AI in their work than industry leaders expect. Echoing that sentiment, Deloitte reported that one in three employees are personally paying for at least one AI application. Just like the specter of shadow IT, this opens up the new looming problem of shadow AI, where employees and departments sneak AI apps into networks.

“AI is here to stay, and enterprises must implement strategies to monitor and protect AI use,” said Moinul Khan, co-founder and chief executive of Aurascape. “Traditional security offerings were not designed for the ways AI applications operate, thus we see an unsolved need for comprehensive AI security today.”

With Aurascape, information technology and security teams get visibility and risk analysis for prompt decoding for thousands of different AI apps — including the most common copilots and models on the market. The platform can identify and incorporate the newest AI-powered tools and minimize false positives across multimodal AI apps that use images, video and audio.

Security teams can configure it to operate within their policy guidelines to incorporate new and evolving AI tools and plug-ins, even as employees bring new ones into the workplace. That automates visibility and protection to help keep security in control without reducing employee productivity, the company said. For example, it can uncover shadow AI usage, block unsafe data sharing in prompts and responses, and coach or nudge users toward safer behaviors.

Lead investors in the company include Menlo Ventures and Mayfield Fund, alongside security industry leaders such as former Palo Alto Networks Chairman and CEO Mark McLaughlin, and former Zscaler Chief Strategy Officer Manoj Apte. The company’s launch funding includes a $12.8 million seed round raised in August led by Mayfield Fund.

“I’ve seen a lot of AI security startups launch in the last 12 to 24 months, and the AI-native, prevention-first approach Aurascape takes makes them stand out in a crowded space,” said Richard Stiennon, research analyst at IT-Harvest and author of Security Yearbook 2024.

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