Apex Emerges from Stealth With $7 Million In Seed Funding to Empower Secure Enterprise AI Adoption

QUICK TAKE

• At a time when companies and staff are rapidly adopting AI applications to streamline daily workflows, Apex provides real-time detection, investigation, and response to cyberattacks targeting the AI platforms at the core of it all.
• The platform provides organizations with comprehensive visibility of all AI activity, allowing them to define how the technology is used and enforce security policies accordingly.
• Already catering to several Fortune 500 companies, Apex plans to use $7 million of seed funding to accelerate product development, recruitment, and go-to-market efforts.
• The round was co-led by Index Ventures, with participation from key angel investors including Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.

THE DETAILS

Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, there has been an exponential rise in the adoption of Generative AI capabilities across all industries. With over 90% of Fortune 500 companies already having employees using ChatGPT for work, GenAI is fast becoming a core function at every company.

However, this fast-paced adoption of AI applications comes with a range of new risks and security challenges for businesses, including potential data leaks, the risk of malicious data injection into organizational systems, concerns related to privacy and copyright infringements, as well as the looming threat of sophisticated AI-driven cyberattacks.

While swiftly embracing AI practices is essential for organizations aiming to stay ahead in a competitive landscape, it also requires them to effectively navigate evolving security threats. Companies are now tasked with striking a delicate balance between fostering innovation and ensuring robust protection measures are in place to safeguard against these potential risks. Apex provides the tools to do this.

“Apex was founded with the mission of empowering security and AI teams to enable the secure and swift AI adoption within world-class organizations,” said Matan Derman, Co-Founder and CEO at Apex. “During the company's founding, we consulted with dozens of executives to understand their needs and discovered a reluctance to adopt advanced AI due to security concerns. Apex is positioned to change all that, playing a key role in helping organizations secure AI models and applications and enabling them to leverage the power of AI safely.”

Apex’s security platform provides organizations with comprehensive visibility of their AI activity, allowing them to define how the technology is used across the organization and enforce security policies accordingly. The platform can detect violations of a company's or industry security standards, and identify and respond to AI attacks, so that companies can stay secure without sacrificing their use of cutting-edge AI technologies.

Essentially, Apex adds a crucial security layer to organizations leveraging AI models, applications, and large language models.

The company was founded in 2023 by Matan Derman (CEO) and Tomer Avni (CPO), who met at Israeli intelligence unit 8200 where they served as distinguished officers at the ranks of Lieutenant Colonel and Captain. Both hold Master’s degrees from Stanford and Harvard respectively.

The $7 million seed funding round was co-led by Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital, with participation from notable angel investors, including Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. Apex already caters to various Fortune 500 companies as clients and plans to use the seed funding to accelerate product development, employee recruitment, and go-to-market efforts.