Alaris Security announced the launch of Startup Shield, a program offering VC-backed startups 50% off the Alaris Enterprise Platform for 12 months. The program is a direct response to a recent breach at a $10 billion AI recruiting startup, which exposed 4TB of sensitive data and affected more than 40,000 individuals.
The breach was not caused by a zero-day exploit or an advanced persistent threat that required nation-state resources to execute. It started with a compromised open-source package, moved through stolen VPN credentials, and ended with the complete exfiltration of candidate databases, video interviews, source code, and internal communications. The entire attack chain played out over four days. No internal system flagged it. The startup learned about the breach when the attackers posted the data publicly.
This pattern is not unique to one company. Fast-growing startups routinely collect sensitive data well before they have the security infrastructure to protect it. The gap between what a startup holds and what it can defend is where breaches happen.
What Startup Shield Includes
Qualifying startups receive the full Alaris Enterprise Platform at 50% off for 12 months. This is not a stripped-down tier or a limited trial. It is the same platform deployed by enterprise and defense organizations.
Who Qualifies
Startup Shield is open to startups that meet all of the following criteria:
There is no revenue requirement. The 50% discount applies for the full 12-month term regardless of growth. Startups that grow beyond the eligibility criteria during the program continue to receive the discounted rate through the end of their term.
Why This Matters Now
The breach is part of a broader pattern. The TeamPCP supply chain campaign compromised five ecosystems (GitHub Actions, Docker Hub, PyPI, npm, and OpenVSX), affecting an estimated 500,000 machines across more than 1,000 SaaS environments. The Axios npm package, with 100 million weekly downloads, was compromised the same week by a separate North Korean threat actor.
Startups are disproportionately exposed to these attacks. They move fast, aggressively pull in dependencies, and typically lack dedicated security operations. Most cannot justify the cost of an enterprise security platform until after an incident forces their hand. Startup Shield closes that gap before the incident happens.
“That breach was preventable. Every stage of the attack chain produced detectable signals. But you can only detect what you’re monitoring. Most startups aren’t monitoring anything. We want to change that before the next headline,” said David Colombo, Founder & CEO, Alaris Security.
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Above Security (Above), the AI-native agentic managed insider threat platform, emerged from stealth and announced $50 million in funding. The funding was led by Ballistic Ventures, Merlin Ventures, and Norwest, with participation from Jump Capital and QPV Ventures.
“We invest in companies that redefine categories, not incrementally improve them. Above Security is doing exactly that, and we are tremendously excited to partner with CEO Aviv Nahum and the Above team as they build the next generation of insider risk management.” Phil Venables, Partner, Ballistic Ventures
Above has been generating substantial revenue for six months, with several enterprises deploying the platform in minutes and without writing a single policy, rule, or configuration. The company was founded by Aviv Nahum, a veteran of Unit 81, and Amir Boldo, a veteran of Unit 49, both seasoned entrepreneurs with prior exits.
Insider threat has never been a solved problem. Despite decades of investment in DLP, UEBA, and behavior analytics, organizations still cannot reliably detect, investigate, or stop risk that originates from inside their own walls. Now the problem is about to get orders of magnitude harder. As AI agents gain access to enterprise systems and act autonomously on behalf of employees, the perimeter of who counts as an insider is expanding faster than any existing tool was built to handle.
Above’s platform uses a fleet of specialized AI investigators to continuously analyze behavior across identity, endpoint, SaaS, and AI environments. Rather than flagging anomalies or applying static data movement rules, the approach taken by DLP and UEBA tools, Above’s Arbiter engine determines intent by correlating behavioral signals the way a human investigator would. The result is a sharp reduction in false positives, the elimination of most manual investigation time, and an evidentiary timeline that security, legal, and HR teams can act on directly.
“Most insider incidents we see are negligence, not malicious activity, so Above’s coaching-first approach fits perfectly. Our biggest challenge was piecing together user activity across scattered systems. Above didn’t just detect threats—it delivered complete behavioral timelines and surfaced critical incidents within five days that we would have otherwise missed.” Matt Wilmot, CISO, Merlin Entertainments.
45% of breaches are attributed to non‑malicious human and system errors (IBM). This demonstrates that the majority of insider risk isn’t malicious or intentional. It is employees trying to work faster, inadvertently creating inappropriate access, accidental data exposure, and shadow AI and IT risk. Above addresses both the negligent and the deliberate, making the platform relevant to security, HR, and legal teams simultaneously.
“Today’s insider risk management requires constant investigation by humans. That model simply doesn’t scale, and AI agents extrapolate this by orders of magnitude,” said Aviv Nahum, Co-Founder and CEO. “AI agents are becoming insiders in everything but name. They have access, they take action, and they operate at machine speed, yet they’re largely invisible to existing insider risk programs.”
As AI systems take on more autonomous roles inside organizations, with access levels that grow by the day, Above argues they become de facto insiders with no corresponding oversight in existing security programs. The platform’s investigation model applies equally to human and machine actors, a design decision the founders describe as the defining requirement of the agentic era.
“The rapid adoption of AI over the last five years has introduced new risks that require dedicated solutions,” said Amir Boldo, Co-Founder and CPTO. “You can’t secure tomorrow’s organization if your definition of ‘insider’ stops at employees.”
“In a future where AI will operate most complex systems, humans will not disappear—they will level up. Those who supervise and manage automation will hold real power within organizations. But with that power also comes risk: human error or an insider threat can have a much faster and far deeper impact. Above is building a protection layer that empowers people, reduces mistakes, and prevents insider threats before they become incidents. In an AI-accelerated world, true resilience begins with people.” – Shay Michel, Managing Partner, Merlin Ventures.
“Insider threats represent one of the most critical and under-addressed challenges in cybersecurity today, accounting for nearly 30% of all security incidents. Aviv, Amir and the Above Security team have built an innovative approach that transforms how organizations detect and prevent these threats through real-time behavioral analysis and user education. We’re excited to partner with Above Security as they revolutionize insider risk management for the modern enterprise.” – Dror Nahumi, General Partner, Norwest.
As one of the 35 selected top 5 companies for the 2026 CrowdStrike, AWS & NVIDIA Cybersecurity Startup Accelerator, Above has established integrations with CrowdStrike, and others across identity, endpoint, and SaaS environments. The platform targets organizations with 1,000 or more employees operating in SaaS-forward environments.
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Lucky, a leading financial technology company in Egypt and the Middle East, today announced the successful closing of a $23 million Series B funding round, including a mix of equity and debt. The round was led by existing & new investors, including Disruptech Ventures, DPI Venture Capital via Nclude fund and new strategic participation from Suez Canal Bank and OneStop, chaired by the visionary Tech Investor Mohamed Farouk, who has also been appointed as the Chairman of the Board for Lucky App.
This milestone follows a period of significant-growth for the company. After achieving 3x annual growth in 2025 and marking profitability by the end of 2025, Lucky has solidified its position as a leader in consumer credit, aiming to play a significant role in Egypt’s transformation into a digital & financially inclusive economy inline with the Central Bank of Egypt’s vision.
The new capital will support Lucky’s next phase of growth, with a focus on scaling its credit offering, expanding into North Africa, and strengthening its infrastructure, licensing, and regulatory readiness as it moves toward becoming a neo-banking-ready platform.
Mohamed Farouk, who now chairs Lucky’s Board, emphasized the company’s strong growth and vision: “Lucky has demonstrated disciplined growth, strong product-market fit, and a clear vision for inclusive digital finance,” said Farouk. “This investment supports a platform that is well-positioned to be one of the leading players in the next phase of consumer credit and neo-banking in the region.”
“With Mohamed Farouk’s vision, Lucky is well positioned to advance inclusive digital finance,” commented Ayman Essawy, CEO of Lucky. “Financial access is the foundation of progress. This round allows us to scale responsibly, invest in infrastructure, and deepen our impact as regulators unlock digital onboarding and modern payment frameworks across Egypt and the region. Lucky removes complexity from credit and opens it up to more people, leveraging its advanced technology and AI capabilities. With a card that works anywhere and anytime, we help individuals move forward confidently.”
The investment also aligns with broader regulatory tailwinds shaping Egypt’s fintech landscape. Recent advances in digital onboarding, payments infrastructure, and the introduction of PSP licensing mark a turning point for fintech players with proven scale and compliance capabilities. Lucky has already begun work toward PSP licensing, positioning the company to expand its service stack and support more comprehensive digital financial services over time.
Since launch, Lucky has built partnerships across merchants and financial institutions, serving a rapidly growing user base across Egypt. The company plans to leverage this round to enter select North African markets while continuing to enhance its technology, risk infrastructure, and regulatory capabilities.
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Maison Safqa, a Saudi-based flash-sale platform for premium and luxury brands, has raised $620,000 in a pre-seed funding round with participation from 500 Global through the Sanabil MENA 500 Accelerator Fund, alongside Saudi and international business angels. Investors include retail and technology entrepreneurs and executives, among them the founder of Ventes Exclusives, one of Europe’s largest flash-sale platforms, now part of Veepee.
Founded in 2024 by Lea Mehaweg, Estelle Nasr, and Georgia Mehaweg, Maison Safqa is building a technology-enabled platform that helps premium and luxury brands monetize excess inventory while maintaining control over pricing, distribution, and brand positioning. Drawing inspiration from the most successful flash-sale companies abroad, the founders leveraged their professional experience and networks across Saudi Arabia and the GCC, along with knowledge in commercial development and e-commerce, to create a platform that connects high-intent, fashion-forward audiences with limited-time offers across fashion, beauty, and lifestyle categories. At the core of the platform is a partner-centric approach, through which Maison Safqa already offers the brands the flexibility to choose between regular flash sales or invitation-only online sales.
Lea Mehaweg, Co-founder and CEO of Maison Safqa, commented: “The GCC luxury goods market generated $12.8 billion in revenue in 2025, yet brands still struggle to move excess inventory without diluting their image or compromising margins. Maison Safqa was built to address this challenge by providing a controlled environment where premium and luxury brands can unlock that value while reaching the right audience.”
Estelle Nasr, Co-founder and COO of Maison Safqa, said: “From the beginning, our focus has been to build a platform that delivers an effortless and intuitive experience for both brands and customers. For our brand partners, we manage everything end-to-end, from onboarding to delivery, so they can move inventory without the operational burden. At the same time, our technology allows brands to launch campaigns quickly while always offering a carefully selected assortment for customers.”
Amal Dokhan, Managing Partner of Sanabil 500, commented: “We are pleased to support Maison Safqa as they bring an established e-commerce flash sale model to the region. The team has secured partnerships with leading retailers and brands and we look forward to supporting their next phase of growth.”
Since its launch in May 2025, Maison Safqa has built a portfolio of more than 50 premium fashion and lifestyle brands, spanning international and regional labels such as Aigner, Lanvin, Liu Jo, Chantelle, Flabelus, and Qormuz. In less than a year, the platform has grown gross sales by more than 20x and established corporate partnerships with leading Saudi institutions such as Red Sea Global, Diriyah, and Cenomi Real Estate.
Looking ahead, the company aims to become the leading flash sales platform in the region, surpassing $2.5 million in cumulative sales within the next 18 months while expanding its portfolio to more than 100 brands. Maison Safqa is also working to complement its online model with offline sales events across Riyadh and Jeddah and continues to invest in technology, including customer personalisation tools and automated seller onboarding tools.
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BelArabi, the go-to agency built for agencies providing Arabic communication services, is kicking off Q2 with a brand-new initiative, “Tamkeen by BelArabi.” And guess what? It’s all about lifting up two incredible female-led startups.
We’re talking about three months of pro-level support, on the house. Whether you need PR that pops, media buzz, influencer magic, or scroll-stopping social content, BelArabi has got you covered.
Why? Because founder Ghida Abou Zeki remembers exactly what it felt like to arrive in the UAE, full of ambition and a dream in her suitcase.
“When I first stepped in the UAE in 2014, I felt that only here my dreams will be heard and seen and today is the day I can give back to a country that turned my dreams to reality. Launching this BelArabi initiative for startups, will support small businesses that need it most right now and give back to the startup community that helped shape our journey,” said Ghida.
“The UAE has become a global hub for entrepreneurship however, some female-led startups across the region face unique challenges in scaling their businesses,” explains Ghida. “Access to visibility, gaining earned media coverage and having the right strategic communication support can often be difficult, especially in the early stages of growth.” Ghida explains that founders frequently juggle multiple roles, from operations, to HR to marketing, without the resources or expertise to build a strong brand presence in a competitive market.
At BelArabi, Ghida emphasizes that thought leadership plays a leading role in building credibility and long-term brand equity, particularly in competitive markets. For startups, she says, it positions founders as trusted voices within their industry by consistently sharing insights, perspectives, and expertise on relevant topics, through which their brands then shape conversations rather than simply participate in them. This, she explains, can take the form of opinion pieces, expert commentary, speaking opportunities, or educational content that adds real value to the audience. In the context of Arabic communication, Ghida highlights that thought leadership becomes even more impactful when delivered in a culturally relevant and linguistically authentic way, allowing brands to connect more deeply with regional audiences. She concludes that ultimately, strong thought leadership not only builds trust but also opens doors to partnerships, media opportunities and sustainable growth.
Influencer marketing has also become a powerful driver of brand perception, Ghida notes, particularly in digitally connected markets like the United Arab Emirates. For startups, she explains, it offers a strategic way to build trust and visibility through voices that audiences already follow and respect. Rather than focusing on reach alone, effective influencer marketing in the region prioritizes alignment, partnering with creators whose values, aesthetic, and audience reflect the brand’s identity. As Ghida puts it, this is especially important in Arabic communication, “where authenticity, tone, and cultural nuance can significantly impact how content is received.”
“In addition, navigating culturally nuanced communication, particularly in Arabic, can be a barrier for startups looking to connect authentically with local audiences,” Ghida says. “Without the right messaging and language, even the most innovative ideas can struggle to gain traction, attract investment, or reach their intended audience effectively.”
At the heart of this initiative lies a deeper understanding of the region’s communication landscape. Brands that succeed in the region recognize that language is closely tied to identity, trust, and emotional connection. Crafting messaging in Arabic allows companies to engage audiences in a way that feels authentic, rather than adapted or secondary.
Across markets such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, consumer expectations continue to evolve, with audiences placing greater value on brands that reflect their culture and speak their language naturally. This is particularly important for startups, where first impressions and brand perception can directly impact growth, partnerships, and investment opportunities.
“Tamkeen by BelArabi” aims to help bridge this gap by equipping selected startups with the tools, expertise and visibility needed to tell their story with impact. While the initiative may not solve every challenge faced by female entrepreneurs, it is designed to make a meaningful contribution, helping founders get started, amplify their voice, build confidence in their brand, and unlock new growth opportunities,” Ghida explains.
If you’re building something new, this is your moment. Ready to apply?
Submit your application to: hello@belarabigroup.com
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Via Separations announced $36 million in new funding with significant participation from new investors, including Climate Investment, Aramco Ventures, and Marathon Petroleum Corporation, alongside participation from existing backers, including Embark Ventures, The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), and Safar Partners.
The investment will accelerate deployment of Via’s modular filtration platform into the refining and chemical sectors, building on proven commercial performance in pulp and paper to help industrial operators reduce energy use, improve uptime, and strengthen operational resilience — with the added benefit of lower emissions.
Via electrifies heat-based separation with modular filtration systems that integrate directly with existing equipment, drastically reducing the energy required for chemical separations. These thermal separation steps account for roughly 12 percent of global energy use, driving significant fuel and steam demand across industrial separations. By replacing them with a mechanically driven membrane process, Via’s system can reduce energy use at the separation step by up to 90 percent, delivering lower operating costs, higher uptime, and a more flexible pathway to energy efficiency and electrification.
The company has proven the technology at commercial scale in the pulp and paper sector, approaching two years of continuous operation at a pulp mill in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada. Via is now expanding deployment into refining and chemicals, with hundreds of millions of dollars of capital projects in the commercial pipeline. The company also completed a pilot at a major Gulf Coast refinery last year.
“Thermal separations represent one of the largest and least-addressed sources of industrial energy consumption,” said Mike Bishop, Investment Director at Climate Investment. “Via’s innovative membrane platform introduces electrification to processes that have depended on heat for more than a century. By seamlessly integrating into existing industrial infrastructure, the company provides a practical solution for reducing energy consumption, enhancing reliability, and significantly lowering emissions.”
“At Aramco Ventures, we invest in differentiated technologies that can deliver clear operational value at scale,” said Tibor Toth, Senior Investment Director at Aramco Ventures. “Via Separations’ modular platform addresses a critical step in industrial processing and has strong potential to enhance efficiency and unlock additional capacity within existing refining and chemical assets.”
“By proving our technology commercially in one sector, we’ve built the foundation to scale into the much larger refining and chemicals markets,” said Shreya Dave, CEO of Via Separations. “This investment enables us to deliver more commercial projects across the product portfolio, expand manufacturing capacity, and accelerate global adoption of membrane‑based separations.”
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Meta is stepping back into the AI spotlight with a new model it hopes will reset the narrative. On April 8, Meta Platforms introduced Muse Spark, the first release from its newly formed Meta Superintelligence Labs. The model marks a turning […]
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OpenAI’s push to scale its next wave of AI infrastructure has hit a pause in the U.K., a setback that highlights a growing tension facing the industry: building advanced AI systems now hinges as much on energy and policy as […]
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It’s Wednesday, April 8, 2026, and we’re back with today’s top startup and tech funding news. Today’s rounds highlight a clear shift toward AI infrastructure, robotics, biotech innovation, and financial platforms scaling across global markets. From humanoid intelligence systems to […]
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An unknown hacker group claims they breached one of China’s most critical supercomputing facilities, stealing more than 10 petabytes of data—potentially one of the largest exfiltrations of sensitive information ever reported. The alleged target is the National Supercomputing Center in […]
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Perplexity isn’t just about answering questions anymore. It’s starting to do the work. The San Francisco AI startup has posted a sharp revenue jump, with annualized recurring revenue climbing past $450 million in March 2026. That marks a 50% increase […]
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Polygon Labs is quietly lining up its next move—and it could reshape how money moves on-chain. The team behind one of Ethereum’s most widely used scaling networks is in early talks with investors to raise up to $100 million. The […]
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Vietnam’s fintech race is heating up, and MoMo is right at the center of it. The Vietnamese digital payments startup is exploring strategic options, including bringing in new investors, in a move that could value the business at more than […]
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China’s push to build its own AI stack is starting to take physical shape. Alibaba has teamed up with China Telecom to launch a new data center in southern China, powered entirely by chips designed in-house. At the center of […]
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It’s Tuesday, April 7, 2026, and we’re back with today’s top startup and tech funding news. Today’s rounds highlight a clear shift toward infrastructure-heavy bets across AI, defense, cybersecurity, and space systems. From hypersonic aircraft and AI-native networking to identity […]
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NEW YORK, NY – April 7, 2026, TechnologyWire – Minimus, a leading provider of hardened container images and secure container images designed to eliminate CVE risk, today announced the appointment of Yael Nardi as Chief Business Officer (CBO). In this newly […]
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The race to make sense of data just hit a reset. A new AI startup called Golden Analytics has stepped out of stealth with $7 million in seed funding from NEA and Madrona, with participation from Breakers. The pitch is simple […]
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The promise of AI has been loud. The results, less so. A new report from Gartner puts a number to what many teams are starting to feel: most AI projects aren’t paying off. In infrastructure and operations, just 28% of […]
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The race to scale AI has exposed a quiet bottleneck: the networks that move data inside modern data centers. Aria Networks is stepping into that gap with fresh capital and a bold pitch. The Palo Alto AI networking startup said […]
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Intel just stepped into one of Elon Musk’s most ambitious bets yet—a $25 billion chip megafactory in Austin that aims to rewrite how AI hardware gets built. On Tuesday, Intel said it will join Musk’s Terafab project alongside Tesla, SpaceX, […]
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For years, Europe’s startup ecosystem was often discussed in comparative terms. It was compared to Silicon Valley, assessed against U.S. funding levels, and often described as promising but incomplete. That framing is beginning to appear dated. Europe’s startup story is […]
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Jeff Bezos is quietly assembling something big—and he’s doing it by pulling talent straight out of the industry’s most influential AI labs. His stealth venture, Project Prometheus, has hired Kyle Kosic, a co-founder of xAI and a former engineer at […]
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It’s Monday, April 6, 2026, and we’re back with today’s top startup and tech funding news. Today’s rounds highlight a sharp surge in investor conviction around quantum computing, AI infrastructure, geospatial intelligence, and next-generation enterprise automation. As capital continues to […]
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OpenAI just made a move that few expected. The company behind ChatGPT has acquired TBPN, a fast-rising tech talk show that built outsized influence in Silicon Valley with a relatively small audience. The price tag, according to The Wall Street […]
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China’s AI race just took a turn that could reshape how the industry thinks about chips, control, and independence. DeepSeek’s upcoming V4 model is expected to run on Huawei-designed processors, marking a clear break from reliance on U.S. hardware. The […]
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A single fake press release can move markets, damage reputations, and trigger chaos before anyone has time to react. That’s the risk FinanceWire is now trying to eliminate. The financial newswire platform announced a new integration with Certidox, introducing a […]
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Elon Musk is pushing deeper into AI—and this time, he’s tying it directly to one of the most anticipated IPOs in history. Banks lining up to help take SpaceX public are being asked to do more than structure the deal. […]
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Mercor has confirmed it was caught in a supply-chain attack tied to LiteLLM—an incident that may have exposed up to 4TB of sensitive data, including candidate records, internal code, and identity documents. The disclosure comes days after reports surfaced that […]
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Anthropic is making a decisive move into biotech. The AI company has acquired Coefficient Bio, a young AI startup focused on applying AI to drug development and clinical strategy, in a deal valued at roughly $400 million, according to an […]
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After spending several months in stealth mode, games industry veteran Ahmed AlSharif today unveiled his new AI start-up, Think. The new company is focused on building a new generation of intelligent, efficient unified software and hardware AI infrastructure that’s significantly moreefficient than current technologies. That means developing innovative solutions to some of the big performance bottlenecks, including cooling, power efficiency and GPU utilisation.
According to AlSharif, his experience problem-solving and wringing every last drop of performance out of hardware and software across his many games industry roles has been absolutely fundamental to his approach with Think and his pivot into AI more broadly.
“I’ve spent close to two decades as a software engineer and engineering leader, and the games industry has been optimising GPUs and extracting maximum performance from constrained hardware for over forty years. So in reality, my core discipline was to solve compute problems,” said AlSharif. “The rush to build datacentres and roll out AI platforms has led to shortages and fast-rising costs for memory and GPUs, so I thought, why not apply the same engineering philosophy I’ve learned from games to the AI infrastructure problem? Where AI companies are seeing a hardware procurement challenge, we saw a GPU efficiency challenge, and that’s what Think is focused on.”
AlSharif’s co-founder is Ammar Enaya, who has more than 30 years of experience leading sales teams at technology companies in the Middle East, including Cisco, HPE Aruba, and Vectra AI.
“With Think, we have a huge opportunity to work with companies that see the potential for AI, but are constrained by the rising cost of hardware, the dominance of a handful of cloud-based AI companies, and concerns around the security and sovereignty of their data and infrastructure. The number of positive conversations I’ve already had with companies in the region has shown us that the same infrastructure issues are affecting everyone, big or small,” said Enaya.
Think already has patents pending on several new products, which the company plans to unveil at LEAP, a show that’s become the biggest showcase for technology companies in the Middle East, and which takes place in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, on August 31 – September 3 this year. So far, the company has been bootstrapped by the two founders, but they are actively exploring an initial funding round to support the roll-out of the new products, having already signed several significant MOU’s.
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Presight and NodeShift, a sovereign AI company which was part of Presight’s inaugural AI Accelerator Program, have announced a strategic partnership that includes joint go-to-market collaboration and investment support to expand the adoption of sovereign AI solutions across international markets.
Earlier, NodeShift has also secured investment through Presight’s venture capital arm, a global AI innovation fund (Presight–Shorooq Fund I). As part of NodeShift’s participation in Presight’s inaugural AI Accelerator Program, the company underwent a comprehensive six-month evaluation covering technology readiness, data sovereignty and regulatory compliance, enterprise scalability, and market fit. Following this process, the Presight-Shorooq Fund I made a significant investment in NodeShift, reflecting strong conviction in the company’s technology, leadership team, and long-term growth potential.
This strategic partnership combines Presight’s commercialization capabilities, global enterprise and government relationships, and applied AI expertise with NodeShift’s secure, compliant sovereign AI infrastructure. Together, the companies will pursue joint initiatives which enable organizations to deploy AI solutions that meet stringent data sovereignty, privacy, and regulatory requirements.
Magzhan Kenesbai, Chief Growth Officer, Presight, said: “From the very first pitch during the Presight AI Accelerator Program, it was clear the NodeShift team had the vision, capability, and ambition to build something truly differentiated. This partnership and investment underscore the tangible value our accelerator is already delivering — identifying high-potential AI technology and scaling it through real commercial engagement. NodeShift exemplifies what we set out to achieve; accelerating breakthrough sovereign AI technologies and creating meaningful, long-term growth opportunities for all parties.”
Since joining the accelerator, NodeShift has engaged with prospective customers across multiple sectors and is currently delivering a proof of concept with the Central Bank of the UAE, in parallel, the company is in active discussions with additional Presight customers, further demonstrating the platform’s applicability in mission-critical and regulated environments.
Mihai Marcuta, Co-Founder and COO of NodeShift, said: “This partnership, alongside the investment from the Presight-Shorooq Fund I, represents a major milestone for NodeShift. Presight’s global reach, sector expertise, and credibility across public and private sectors significantly strengthen our ability to scale, while enabling us to continue delivering AI solutions that meet the highest standards of security and compliance.”
NodeShift is a sovereign generative AI platform that enables organizations to safely use leading open-source and commercial AI models through a single, governed interface. Deployed on-premises or in air-gapped environments, NodeShift ensures sensitive data remains within the organization through built-in security guardrails, policy enforcement, and enterprise integrations, while delivering AI assistants, document intelligence, and collaboration tools in both Arabic and English.
Through this strategic partnership and investment, Presight and NodeShift are jointly positioned to meet growing global demand for sovereign AI by combining advanced infrastructure, investment backing, and coordinated market execution across sectors and geographies.
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Presight has unveiled the first six AI companies selected to receive investment through its AI Innovation Ecosystem, strengthening the pipeline of technologies designed to power next-generation intelligent systems at national and enterprise scale.
The investments form part of the Presight–Shorooq Fund I (PSFI), a US$100 million global early-stage fund established in partnership with Shorooq.
The six companies to receive investment are located across the United States and UAE, and span sovereign AI infrastructure, vertical intelligence platforms for capital and industry, and edge-native intelligence systems. Together, these startups reflect Presight’s focus on identifying breakthrough applied intelligence systems primed for integration into complex, regulated environments where reliability, resilience, and governance are critical.
World Model Architecture
Sovereign AI Infrastructure
Vertical Intelligence for Capital and Industry
Secure, Edge-Native Systems
A Structured Pathway from Innovation to Intelligent Systems
Presight’s AI Innovation Ecosystem is the company’s growth engine, designed to identify, acquire, invest, accelerate and incubate the next generation of breakthrough AI intellectual property to ensure that emerging technologies are developed with deployment in mind from day one. Presight’s AI Innovation Ecosystem consists of an AI Investment Fund, an AI Accelerator Program, and Research and Development Labs.
Through the Presight AI Accelerator Program, companies receive structured mentorship, access to world-leading compute infrastructure, fast-track commercialization pathways with enterprise and government clients within the G42 and Presight ecosystems, and technical integration support. This model ensures alignment with real operational and commercial requirements — enabling integration, contracts, and the development of defensible moats.
Strategic capital vehicles such as PSFI strengthen this pathway by providing early-stage funding aligned to the same thesis, enabling companies to scale within sovereign and regulated environments.
Together, incubation, capital, and deployment create a coordinated model for translating AI innovation into intelligent systems that deliver real-world impact.
Magzhan Kenesbai, Chief Growth Officer of Presight, commented: “AI only creates lasting value when it can operate within real systems. These first investments reflect that conviction – spanning secure AI infrastructure, vertical intelligence platforms for capital and industry, and edge-native systems. Each of these companies is building technology designed for integration into complex, regulated environments. By combining operational environments, structured incubation through the Presight AI Accelerator, and strategic capital via PSFI, we are creating clear pathways from innovation to implementation – translating frontier AI into intelligent systems at scale.”
Dr. Bilal Baloch, Partner at Shorooq, said: “When we launched this fund, our vision was to connect world-class AI innovators with the capital, regulatory support, and market access that our region offers. To have invested in six highly promising companies, after assessing over 1,000, outside our home market alongside leading peers in the US and Asia in 120 days is a marker toward that vision. We were most impressed that these founders are pushing the boundaries of what AI can do – from giving every app a voice interface to automating billion-dollar industries – and thereby allowing us to back varying theses across the AI stack. This is just the beginning; we believe the fund can be a bridge between East and West for AI, and we’re committed to accelerating more breakthroughs that will transform businesses and communities.”
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Google announced the completion of its $32 billion acquisition of Wiz, a leading cloud and AI security platform headquartered in New York. Wiz will join Google Cloud and maintain its brand and commitment to securing customers across all cloud environments.
This acquisition is an investment by Google Cloud to improve cloud security and enable organizations to build fast and securely across any cloud or AI platform. In today’s AI era, more businesses and governments are migrating their most important data and systems to the cloud and turning to agile and continuous software development. As these organizations operate in a multicloud environment and adopt AI, attackers are using AI to operate with greater speed and sophistication.
Wiz delivers an easy-to-use security platform with deep expertise of cloud environments and code, connecting to all major clouds and helping prevent and respond to cybersecurity incidents. Its capabilities complement Google Cloud’s leadership in cloud infrastructure and deep AI expertise, including AI-powered threat intelligence and security operations tools.
Together, Google Cloud and Wiz will provide a unified security platform that improves the speed with which organizations can detect, prevent, and respond to threats. It will help them stay ahead of the curve by detecting emerging threats created using AI models, protecting against threats to AI models, and using AI models to help security professionals hunt for threats more effectively. The platform will also provide a consistent set of tools, processes, and policies across all major cloud environments at every layer, from code to cloud to runtime.
The combined capability will also boost the adoption of multicloud security, enhancing companies’ ability to use multiple clouds – further spurring innovation in cloud computing and AI applications. Enterprises and government agencies can vastly improve how security is designed, operated, and automated, scaling cybersecurity teams while lowering the cost of implementing and managing security controls. The combined platform will also help protect small businesses, which often do not have the expertise and resources to protect themselves, from increasingly sophisticated and destructive cyberthreats.
Consistent with Google Cloud’s commitment to openness, Wiz products will continue to work and be available across all major clouds, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud, and will be offered through an array of partner security solutions. Google Cloud will also continue to offer customers wide choice through a variety of partner security solutions available in the Google Cloud Marketplace.
Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google: “Keeping people safe online has always been part of Google’s mission. This job is increasingly important today, as more companies and governments move their work to the cloud and broadly use generative AI. By bringing Wiz and Google Cloud together, we’re making it easier for organizations to innovate with confidence.”
Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud: “We want to make security a catalyst for innovation, not a barrier. With this acquisition, we will deliver a unified security platform that simplifies the complex task of protecting multicloud environments in the AI era, making a strong security posture accessible to more companies and governments.”
Assaf Rappaport, Co-Founder & CEO, Wiz: “Joining Google Cloud allows us to scale our mission of protecting customers wherever they operate – at machine speed. We remain committed to our open approach, ensuring Wiz continues to support all major cloud and code environments. With Google’s AI leadership and resources, coupled with Wiz’s deep context and knowledge of cloud and code environments, we are in a stronger position to help our partners and customers prevent breaches before they happen.”
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Armadin has raised an industry record $189.9 million in Seed and Series A funding. Led by Accel, with participation from Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Menlo Ventures, In-Q-Tel, and follow-on investment from 8VC and Ballistic Ventures, this marks the largest combined Seed and Series A funding round in cybersecurity history. Armadin’s mission is to prepare organizations for the speed and scale of AI-driven threats.
Closing the Hyperattack Gap
The rise of AI-powered attackers has ushered in the age of Hyperattacks: sophisticated, multi-modal campaigns that move at machine-speed. Traditional human-led defenses are no longer fast enough to bridge the widening security gap, and Armadin is closing this gap by deploying a unified, scalable platform that transforms security by revolutionizing how exploitable risk is identified, proven, and remediated.
“The AI shift is changing cybersecurity more rapidly than any transition in history,” said Kevin Mandia, CEO of Armadin. “In a world of machine-speed attacks, defense must become autonomous. You cannot have a human in the loop for every defense decision and expect to win. We are building the most formidable offense to give organizations the greatest defense. It’s important to national security.”
An Agentic Attacker Swarm
Unlike tools that scan for vulnerabilities, Armadin’s platform features specialized AI agents leveraging custom models in an agentic attacker swarm. These agents continuously reason, plan, and adapt like the most advanced human threat actors and provide CEOs and Boards with decision-grade proof of what can actually be exploited.
“At Accel, we look for companies that don’t just participate in the market, but redefine it,” said Ping Li, Partner at Accel. “Armadin is the first company we’ve seen that truly weaponizes the attacker’s perspective to build a more resilient defense. By combining Kevin’s unrivaled operational experience with a generational AI engineering team, Armadin is delivering the autonomous, comprehensive system of record for an enterprise’s security posture that boards and CISOs have been demanding for years.”
“The most honest measure of security has always been the offensive lens,” said Evan Peña, Founder and Chief Offensive Security Officer. “At Armadin, we are taking decades of human-led red teaming expertise and reinforcing it into AI models. These models are learning our tactics and techniques and are outpacing our human operators at every turn.”
“Security expertise is a constrained resource that organizations never have enough of in the moments when it matters most,” added Travis Lanham, Founder and Chief Technology Officer. “Before Armadin, you could not put a nation-state level adversary inside every network 24/7. We’ve built the ultimate attacker – it doesn’t just follow a script, it reasons and learns as it swarms your defenses. We train our models and build agents to the standards of a world-class red team with safety at the foundation and unleash them to identify exploitable risk at machine speed. We believe that this is the only way to prepare for the coming wave of AI Hyperattacks.”
Armadin’s founding team is a rare fusion of elite red teaming experts and AI researchers and engineers under the leadership of Kevin Mandia, who maintains deep, trusted relationships across Fortune 100 companies, federal law enforcement agencies, and defense departments.
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OpenAI has announced its plans to acquire Promptfoo, an established AI security platform widely used by enterprises to identify and remediate vulnerabilities in AI systems during development. The company confirmed that once the acquisition is finalized, Promptfoo’s technology will be integrated directly into OpenAI Frontier, the platform designed for building and operating AI coworkers. The move reflects OpenAI’s growing focus on strengthening evaluation, security, and compliance capabilities as enterprises increasingly deploy AI agents into real‑world workflows.
According to OpenAI, organizations adopting AI coworkers require systematic methods to test agent behavior, detect risks before deployment, and maintain transparent records to support oversight and governance. Promptfoo, led by co‑founders Ian Webster and Michael D’Angelo, has built a suite of tools trusted by more than a quarter of Fortune 500 companies. Its open‑source CLI and library for evaluating and red‑teaming large language model applications have become widely used across the industry. OpenAI stated that it will continue supporting the open‑source project while expanding enterprise‑grade capabilities within Frontier.
Srinivas Narayanan, CTO of B2B Applications at OpenAI, said the acquisition brings deep engineering expertise in evaluating and securing AI systems at scale. He noted that Promptfoo’s work enables businesses to deploy secure and reliable AI applications, and integrating these capabilities into Frontier will strengthen the platform’s native security features. OpenAI highlighted that the integration will introduce automated security testing and red‑teaming directly into Frontier, enabling enterprises to identify risks such as prompt injections, jailbreaks, data leaks, tool misuse, and out‑of‑policy agent behaviors.
The company also emphasized that security and evaluation will be embedded into development workflows, allowing teams to identify, investigate, and remediate risks earlier in the lifecycle. Enhanced reporting and traceability will support governance, risk management, and compliance requirements as AI oversight expectations continue to rise globally.
Promptfoo CEO Ian Webster said the company was founded to give developers practical tools to secure AI systems, noting that the increasing connectivity of AI agents to real data and systems makes validation more critical than ever. He added that joining OpenAI will accelerate efforts to deliver stronger security, safety, and governance capabilities for teams building real‑world AI applications. The acquisition remains subject to customary closing conditions.
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