Exclusive: Artemis Lands $70M in Funding to Combat AI-Powered Attacks Using AI

(SeaPRwire) –   Artemis, a cybersecurity startup aiming to counter AI-driven threats using artificial intelligence, has unveiled its operations today after operating in stealth mode, securing $70 million in Series A venture capital funding.

Felicis led the financing round, joined by returning investors First Round Capital and Brightmind. The round also included Theory VC and prominent figures from the cybersecurity sector, such as the founders of Demisto and Abnormal AI, the former CEO and CTO of Splunk, and senior executives from CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, and Okta.

The company has not disclosed the valuation reached in this funding round, though a spokesperson stated that “they have closed a few seven-figure deals and are expecting multi-million dollars in ARR before the end of 2026.” Existing clients include Mercury, Wix, Lemonade, and Abnormal AI.

Hackers are now deploying AI to execute attacks at machine speed—sometimes within minutes—while conventional security tools struggle to keep pace, according to CEO Shachar Hirshberg, a former AWS product leader who founded the company six months ago alongside CTO Dan Shiebler, previously the head of AI at Abnormal Security and a machine learning leader at Twitter. Most organizations still depend on rigid, rule-based systems and a patchwork of disjointed tools, forcing security teams to piece together the sequence of events only after damage has occurred.

This disparity is becoming increasingly apparent. Anthropic’s recent Mythos preview illustrates how AI can uncover vulnerabilities at a speed that exceeds most organizations’ capacity to patch them.

Artemis’ strategy involves countering AI-powered attacks with AI: by continuously monitoring all company activities (logins, cloud activity, applications, etc.), learning the specific “normal” behavior for that organization, and immediately identifying anomalies. Rather than overwhelming security teams with confusing alerts, the system attempts to synthesize the data into a clear narrative of what is occurring and can even autonomously halt an attack—such as locking a compromised account—before it spreads.

“It became evident to us that traditional architectures and products are ill-equipped for the needs of companies in the AI era,” Hirshberg remarked, also citing a March report from CrowdStrike indicating a dramatic reduction in the time to attack. He argues that the threat is not merely theoretical; it is already present.

“This is not solely about the future deteriorating,” he stated. “The capabilities available today are already incredibly potent, and attackers are actively exploiting them.”

Furthermore, once attackers gain access, they can automate significant portions of the attack chain, Shiebler noted. “This reduces the time defenders have to respond—and necessitates a completely different security approach,” he explained. Additionally, AI empowers less sophisticated attackers to launch sophisticated campaigns. “This simply raises the standard of what defenders must achieve,” he added.

Felicis partner Jake Storm referenced the recurring cycle in cybersecurity involving “bundling” and “unbundling” tools. In his perspective, AI is driving the industry back toward a centralized “brain” for security operations—a single system that ingests data, reasons through it, and acts in real-time.

This represents a significant departure from today’s fragmented landscape, which is dominated by security information and event management (SIEM) systems like Splunk, which Cisco acquired in 2024 for $28 billion. Storm noted that Artemis is effectively positioning itself as a next-generation alternative to Splunk designed for an AI-driven threat environment.

Nevertheless, the company is entering a crowded and rapidly evolving sector. Nearly every major security vendor is racing to integrate AI into its offerings, while startups are emerging with similar claims regarding autonomous detection and response. However, Storm maintained that Artemis is well-positioned to succeed because it is built for a fundamentally different threat landscape where attacks are inexpensive, constant, and automated, rendering traditional, human-centric security workflows obsolete.