As malicious entities harness AI to take advantage of software flaws with unmatched speed, businesses are increasingly acknowledging the necessity to strengthen their cybersecurity measures.

Luckily, these same AI technologies are aiding companies in their defense efforts.

The rising demand for such features has allowed Exaforce, an AI startup focused on identifying and preventing attacks in real time, to secure a $125 million Series B round. This funding round valued the three-year-old startup at $725 million, with investments from HarbourVest, Peak XV, Mayfield, Khosla Ventures, and Seligman Ventures.

This substantial funding round comes just a year after Exaforce obtained a $75 million Series A, totaling its capital to $200 million. This influx highlights both the high expenses involved in establishing and marketing an AI-powered security operations center (SOC) and the significant market potential investors perceive in this sector.

Exaforce states that it employs AI agents, referred to as “Exabots,” utilizing deep data analytics to automate security workflows, thus alleviating the workload on human analysts.

For co-founder and CEO Ankur Singla, the objective is clear: Utilize AI to detect and thwart threats in real time. “It’s a very straightforward mandate, but it’s quite complex to implement,” he noted.

The primary challenge for security teams lies in the fact that most threat alerts turn out to be false alarms. “A security operations professional receives hundreds of alerts. How can one discern which is a genuine, high-priority alert?” Umesh Padval, a managing partner at Seligman Ventures, illustrated the task of security teams as akin to searching for a needle in a haystack.

Exaforce asserts that its AI platform can minimize manual, tedious tasks by up to 90%.

In light of the increasing cyberattacks, the startup recently launched “vibe hunting,” a feature allowing security teams to query its AI platform using natural language to explore potential threats based on simple intuition. “With vibe hunting, you can pose a straightforward question like, ‘Did we receive any new attacks from Iran?’” Singla explained.

Exaforce officially launched its product in the market in the last quarter of the previous year, after two years of testing with design collaborators. Since then, the startup has onboarded 20 customers, including prominent names like Replit and Guardant Health. Due to the surge in cyberattacks, Singla mentioned to TechCrunch that Exaforce anticipates acquiring 40 to 50 customers by the end of this year.

High-profile attacks have “accelerated our capacity to engage with customers, as they no longer question, ‘Why do I need this?’” Singla noted. The more common question he is encountering now is: “How do I put it into operation?”

Exaforce is not the only one employing AI for security operations. The firm contends with competition from startups like 7AI, Dropzone AI, and Prophet Security, as well as established industry players like Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike.