Lux Capital-backed Cloaked, a consumer app for user identity protection, launched an AI-powered caller screening and dark web monitoring feature today.
Cloaked’s caller screening feature, named Call Guard, takes a call from an unknown number and converses with the caller to understand the intent. The tool automatically filters out spam or potentially scammy calls instead of relying on users to make the decision. It’s similar to what Google launched for Pixel, and what Apple plans to roll out for iOS 26 users. Third-party companies like Truecaller have also used AI for call screening.
Users can still see the full transcript of the call in real time in case they want to take over the call. Cloaked had already worked on developing the phone infrastructure for its identity product that lets users create new phone numbers to mask their real numbers. The startup is taking advantage of that tech, along with call forwarding, to protect users from scams.
“We are trying to understand the intent of the caller using AI rather than just asking the name of the caller and why they are calling. From the data that users have shared with us, a large amount of spam calls and Medicare calls, and then there are political calls. We have also observed that users are now receiving calls from bad AI agents, and we are training our AI agent to tackle that,” Cloaked CEO Arjun Bhatnagar said.
Bhatnagar acknowledged that Apple and Google’s features are based on a similar premise. He said people sign up to try out these features, but retention numbers are low because of a lack of personalization, and that’s why startups like Cloaked can come in.
While handling inbound calls is the first step for Cloaked, the company wants to enable an outbound call facility that deploys AI-bots to hold the line while on a customer support call or booking appointments. Cloaked is also working on an eSIM product.
Additionally, the startup is releasing a dark web monitor for personal data. The company observes different sources such as data brokers, breach sites, compromised websites, dark web forums, Discord, and Telegram for leaked user data. The tool searches for names, addresses, Social Security numbers, emails, family members, passports, and driver licenses.
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It shows users an alert when it finds such leaked data. The company also bifurcates these leaks into active/recent events and historical events, helping users take action for their data.
The company also has a data deletion program, through which users can request sites and data brokers to delete data. Cloaked sends programmatic and legal requests to these sites. The startup said it has helped users get rid of more than 170 million records across the web.
Cloaked said that it has added more than 100,000 paying customers since the beginning of the year and is seeing strong month-over-month growth.
Until 2023, the startup had raised $29 million in funding. Bhatnagar said that the company has gotten an additional $11 million in funding from a mix of existing and new investors, but it is not defining the round or disclosing the new investors as it plans to close a formal round by the end of this year.
