A new Seattle-based startup called Averlon is using artificial intelligence to help overwhelmed security teams in identifying high-priority security flaws and mitigating threats. The company recently raised $8 million in a seed round, led by Voyager Capital, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, Outpost Ventures, and other notable security executives. Co-founders Sunil Gottumukkala and Vishal Agarwal previously led engineering teams at Salesforce and experienced the problem they are now trying to address.
The software products available to help companies identify security issues and vulnerabilities have improved, but they have also resulted in security teams being bombarded with alerts that they cannot effectively handle. The sheer volume of notifications can lead to friction between security and engineering teams within organizations. Averlon utilizes predictive and generative AI to assess a company’s security vulnerabilities and identify potential areas where a bad actor could infiltrate their systems.
The founders of Averlon aim to pinpoint critical security threats and aid in their resolution. While there are existing security products on the market that can alert companies to potential vulnerabilities, Averlon stands out for its ability to prioritize threats effectively and provide assistance in eliminating them. The co-founders have extensive experience in the tech industry, with Gottumukkala having served as a senior vice president in cybersecurity for Salesforce and spending more than a decade at Microsoft, while Agarwal held leadership roles in software engineering at both companies.
The proliferation of AI and generative AI technologies has raised concerns about cybersecurity, with both security experts and hackers leveraging these capabilities. Despite these concerns, Gottumukkala is optimistic about how generative AI can help companies defend themselves. Averlon, founded two years ago, has been working with early partners who are now paying customers. The company has secured a total of $10.5 million in funding and is focused on providing a powerful platform that enables enterprises to understand how attackers could compromise their environment.
Voyager Capital Partner Austin Guyette praised Averlon for its unique approach, stating that the platform allows CISOs and their teams to prioritize threats by understanding the attacker’s perspective. The ability to pinpoint threats, predict potential attacks, and mitigate risks sets Averlon apart from other cybersecurity solutions in the market. The cybersecurity industry in the Seattle area is experiencing growth, with several startups, including Dropzone AI, Oleria, and StepSecurity, raising funds recently. Overall, cybersecurity startups raised nearly $2.7 billion in the first quarter of the year, indicating a significant interest in the sector and a potential increase in labor demand in the future.
