Israel is a world leader in cybersecurity with hundreds of startups. (File)
Jerusalem:
Apex, an Israeli cybersecurity startup focused on securing the rapid use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, announced Thursday that it has received an undisclosed investment from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Apex has raised a total of $7 million in a seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital with participation from Index Ventures and Altman. Altman did not immediately comment.
Apex said it is conducting pilots with a number of Fortune 500 companies and investment firms and is close to signing paid agreements. The company said the new funding will be used to accelerate product development, hire employees and support marketing.
With the growing demand for AI tools that can complete tasks faster, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, users are looking for ways to protect their data and prevent threats and inappropriate data from entering their systems.
“There's a whole new realm of threats and risks using AI models. It starts with data breaches and data-side issues. It goes into privacy, compliance, and what's coming back into the organization.” Apex Chief Executive CEO Matan Darman told Reuters. .
He said this was a pivotal moment for the cybersecurity industry, which has traditionally focused on preventing and blocking unwanted access.
“We started Apex to create the extra layer of security that enterprises need to deploy (AI),” he said. “We will try to make this happen as much as possible.”
Israel is a world leader in cybersecurity with hundreds of startups.
Ten months ago, Darman co-founded Apex with Tomer Avni. Mr. Avni met them when they both served as officers in the Israeli military's elite intelligence unit 8200. Since then, the company has operated in so-called stealth mode, secretly collaborating with selected companies.
“Every board of directors, every CEO, every investor, every entrepreneur is talking about AI and how it can be leveraged,” Avni said. “So the need for security becomes even more pressing.”
Avni said AI is the latest in major changes in technology, starting with the advent of personal computers and then moving to networks and the cloud, each of which requires additional security.
“AI is probably going to be bigger than any previous revolution, because it's going to be everywhere,” he said.
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