Apex, an Israeli cyber security firm that protects the rapid use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, announced that it had received an undisclosed investment from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. As per the announcement, a seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures, with participation from Altman and others, resulted in a total of $7 million for Apex.

 

The company claimed it was nearing the conclusion of paid contracts and had been conducting trials with several investment firms and Fortune 500 companies. According to the firm, the new funds will accelerate product development, hire workers, and market the business.

 

Users of AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT, which aid in faster task completion, are looking for ways to safeguard their data and prevent threats and inappropriate data from entering their systems.

 

"There is a whole new segment of threats and risks using AI models. It starts with data leakage and problems on the data side. It goes to privacy, compliance and what comes back into an organisation," Matan Derman, Apex's CEO, told sources.

 

He stated that this marked a turning point for the cybersecurity industry, which had previously focused on blocking unwanted access and prevention. "We started Apex to build the extra layers of security needed for enterprises to adopt (AI)," he said. "We will try to take this as far as we can."

 

With hundreds of startups, Israel is a cyber security leader worldwide. Ten months prior, Derman helped establish Pinnacle with Tomer Avni, whom he met when both filled in as officials in the Israeli military's top-notch 8200 knowledge unit. Since then, the company has collaborated secretly with a select group of businesses in a so-called stealth mode.