Zurich-based Lakera secures €18.4M from Atomico, others to secure GenAI applications

Zurich-based Lakera, a real-time Generative AI (GenAI) Security company, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $20M (approximately €18.4M) in a Series A funding round led by European VC Atomico.

Others, including Citi Ventures, Dropbox Ventures, and existing investors including redalpine, also participated in the round. The latest investment round brings the company’s total funding to $30M.

As part of this round, Atomico Partner Sasha Vidiborskiy will join Lakera’s board.

Lakera plans to use this funding round to invest further in its product development and expand its presence in the US. 

The announcement comes around a year after raising $10M (approximately €9.4M) in a fresh funding round led by Redalpine.

What does Lakera solve?

It’s been predicted that by 2026, 80 per cent of enterprises will have used GenAI or GenAI-enabled applications in production environments, up from less than 5 per cent in 2023.

While GenAI could add an estimated $4.4T annually to global GDP, cybersecurity remains the second most-cited risk associated with its adoption as traditional cyber tools are ill-equipped to address the novel dangers it poses.

This creates a critical need for security solutions that address GenAI-specific risks, without which businesses are unable to unlock the benefits of AI. 

David Haber, Founder and CEO of Lakera, says, “With the advent of GenAI, the old cybersecurity techniques aren’t sufficient. Enterprises now operate in a world where anyone who knows how to talk knows how to hack. Security solutions need to change but they can’t get in the way of user experience. There is a need for real-time AI security solutions that continuously evolve and enable amazing user experiences.” 

Lakera: GenAI security company

Founded in 2021 by David Haber, Mateo Rojas-Carulla, and Matthias Kraft, Lakera is a real-time GenAI security company.

To accelerate the secure adoption of AI, the company created Gandalf, an educational tool, where more than one million users have learned about AI security.

Lakera uses AI to continuously evolve defenses, so customers can stay ahead of emerging threats.

The company’s comprehensive approach to AI security aims to provide three main benefits for enterprises:

• Protection that doesn’t slow down their AI applications
• The ability to stay ahead of AI threats with continuously evolving intelligence
• Centralised implementation of AI security controls

To make implementation effortless for developers, the company’s API can be integrated with just a single line of code. This provides an ultra-low-latency security layer that is compatible with any GenAI model.

Centralised controls enable security teams to customise application-specific policies and address emerging threats without requiring any code changes.

With over 250 thousand users worldwide, including companies such as Microsoft where it’s used in security training, Gandalf generates a real-time database of AI threats which is growing by 100 thousands of uniquely new attacks every day and keeps Lakera’s software up to date, ensuring continuous protection for customers.

The investor

Atomico invests in ambitious tech founders from Seed through to IPO with a particular focus on Europe, leveraging deep operational experience to supercharge their growth.

Founded in 2006, Atomico has partnered with over 100 ambitious teams – including those at Klarna, Supercell, Graphcore, Compass, MessageBird, Masterclass, Attentive Mobile, Pipedrive and Hinge Health.

Atomico Partner Sasha Vidoborskiy, who will join Lakera’s board, says, “Lakera has seen impressive commercial pull, winning customers such as Dropbox and a top 3 US bank, and already having more than 35% of Fortune 100 companies knock on their door. All those clients have an urgency to deploy GenAI applications into production, but can’t do it without protection in place. Easy integration, best-in-class performance, and low latency are why they pick Lakera. But most importantly, the company is led by David and his team, who are thought leaders in the space and have a deep understanding of what the adoption of AI means for new cybersecurity risks.”