Lakera Raises $20 Million to Provide Security for GenAI Applications

Lakera has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round to expand its offerings in the real-time generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications security category.

This round brings the firm’s total funding to $30 million, and the firm will use the new funding to accelerate its product development and go-to-market strategy, Lakera said in a Wednesday (July 24) press release.

“In less than two years it’s estimated that 80% of enterprises will have deployed GenAI applications in production environments,” the company said in the release. “The challenge is to secure these applications against AI-specific risks.”

Lakera said in the release that generative AI has introduced new attack methods, such as prompt and data poisoning attacks, that hackers can use to steal confidential information or trigger inappropriate behavior from the model.

So, enterprises must put in place guardrails to ensure the model cannot be manipulated, according to the release.

“Lakera provides real-time GenAI security so that the most powerful technology of our lifetime cannot be tricked into taking unintended actions,” the company said.

The company also uses an AI-first approach to stay ahead of continuously evolving threats, uses an ultra-low latency application programming interface (API) to ensure that its security solution doesn’t compromise the user experience, and enables its customers to centralize their AI security by inserting a single API call in their applications, per the release.

Lakera’s latest funding round was led by Atomico, with participation from Citi Ventures, Dropbox and its existing investors, according to the release.

Donald Tucker, head of corporate development and ventures at Dropbox, said of Lakera: “Their advanced technology is helping companies like Dropbox safeguard against vulnerabilities these new technologies pose.”

The National Security Agency (NSA) said in April that as AI is increasingly integrated into business operations, these systems are particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks.

“AI brings unprecedented opportunity but also can present opportunities for malicious activity,” NSA Cybersecurity Director Dave Luber said in a press release.

In June, Aim Security raised $18 million, saying that it helps enterprises safely adopt AI and address the data, privacy and security issues the technology brings with it.