Cyber impersonation prevention startup Imper.ai Inc. launched today with $28 million in new funding to accelerate its expansion and mission to stop impersonation, including deepfakes and voice clones and social engineering attacks at their source.

Founded in 2024, imper.ai aims to protect digital communications by verifying the true identity of participants across all common channels, including video calls, chat apps, phone calls, and information technology help desk interactions.

The company’s platform leverages hard-to-forge metadata, such as device telemetry, network diagnostics, behavioral signals and organizational context, rather than scanning conversation content. The platform takes an agentless approach and does not need to install plugins or disrupt existing workflows.

Imper.ai also takes a privacy-first approach that allows companies to use the platform across tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack, WhatsApp, Google Workspace and help-desk systems without changing how employees normally work.

Under the hood, the platform uses “digital breadcrumbs,” signals attackers are unable to fake even with advanced artificial intelligence deepfake tools. Imper.ai’s method of analyzing metadata and context aims to stay one step ahead of cybercriminals who are increasingly using AI to generate convincing fake voices, videos and messages.

“AI-driven impersonation has become one of the biggest drivers of financial loss and reputational risk for enterprises,” said co-founder and Chief Executive Noam Awadish. “Gartner expects that by 2027, half of all enterprises will invest in anti-deepfake and disinformation-security tools, a clear sign this is no longer a niche issue. We built imper.ai to help chief information security officers strengthen their defenses and focus on prevention instead of crisis response.”

While only formally launching to the public today, companies across finance, healthcare and technology sectors are already deploying imper.ai’s solution to strengthen trust in digital communications.

The funding round was led by Redpoint Ventures LP and Battery Ventures LP, with Maple VC, Vessy VC and Cerca Partners also participating.

“Impersonation isn’t just a feature of modern attacks – it’s becoming the primary threat vector,” said Barak Schoster, partner at Battery Ventures and board member of imper.ai. “Imper.ai is building what we believe will be a foundational layer of enterprise security: real-time verification at the point where human trust is most vulnerable.”

Photo: imper.ai