Horizon3.ai, a cybersecurity startup that provides tools like autonomous penetration testing, is seeking to raise $100 million in a new funding round and has locked down at least $73 million, the company revealed in an SEC filing this week.
NEA led the round, according to two people familiar with the deal. One person said that the startup is believed to be valued upward of $750 million, although TechCrunch couldn’t verify whether that valuation is pre- or post-money. Another person believes the company did (or will) sell the whole $100 million, and added that the company is generating about $30 million in annual recurring revenue. Neither Horizon nor NEA responded to TechCrunch’s requests for comment.
With this deal, Horizon3.ai becomes NEA’s second major cybersecurity startup investment in less than a month, following Veza’s $108 million funding round at an $800 million valuation announced in April.
In August 2023, Horizon3.ai raised $40 million in a Series C round led by Craft Ventures with participation from SignalFire. That round brought the startup’s total fundraising to $78.5 million and was aimed to expand its R&D, channel presence, and team of engineers, co-founder CEO Snehal Antani told TechCrunch at the time.
Founded in 2019, Horizon3.ai comprises a team of former U.S. Special Operations cyber operators, entrepreneurs, and cybersecurity experts. Before launching the startup, Antani served as CTO at Splunk and led teams within the U.S. Military’s Joint Special Operations Command.
With all things AI being deployed across the tech world, AI-powered automated attacks are also on the rise. The San Francisco-based startup Horizon3.ai helps protect against such attacks with its autonomous threat detection tools.
Earlier this month, Horizon3.ai received FedRAMP authorization, enabling it to sell its wares to federal agencies. It also announced in February that it saw 101% year-on-year revenue growth, exceeding 150% of its Q4 pipeline targets, without sharing specific numbers.
