Astra Security, a cutting-edge cybersecurity SaaS company, has announced the successful closure of a $2.7 million growth capital round led by Emergent Ventures, with participation from Neon Fund, Better Capital, Blume Ventures, and PointOne Capital. The fresh capital will accelerate Astra Security’s mission to redefine penetration testing (pentesting) through AI-powered solutions, helping businesses stay ahead of evolving cyber threats.
AI-Powered Security for the Modern Digital Landscape
Astra Security is transforming the cybersecurity industry with its AI-driven pentesting platform, which mimics hacker behavior to identify vulnerabilities at an unprecedented scale. Over 800 engineering teams across 70+ countries rely on Astra Security’s technology to safeguard their applications, infrastructure, and APIs from cyber threats.
Last year alone, the company uncovered nearly 5,500 vulnerabilities per day. With AI enabling faster code deployment, the attack surface for cybercriminals continues to expand. Astra Security anticipates that by the end of the year, its platform will triple its vulnerability detection capacity.
“The cybercrime landscape is becoming increasingly complex with AI-based attacks,” said Shikhil Sharma, co-founder and CEO of Astra Security. “Traditional, periodic pentesting is no longer enough in today’s threat environment, and Astra Security is moving more businesses to continuous pentesting to stay ahead of hackers. The engineering world has become agile, collaborative, and automation-driven, but the cybersecurity industry has lagged behind. It’s our mission to breathe life into the security space by integrating AI, adopting a hacker's mindset, and making the tech easy and accessible.”
Bringing Continuous Pentesting to Security Teams
Astra Security’s platform operates at the intersection of offensive security and automation, providing a comprehensive solution that includes Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS), a DAST vulnerability scanner, and an API security platform. These tools work in unison to uncover over 13,000 vulnerabilities, ensuring that businesses remain secure while reducing manual effort.
“Security is increasingly shifting to the hands of developers, while security teams find themselves more overwhelmed than ever,” said Ananda Krishna, co-founder and CTO of Astra Security. “While pentests have been around for over a decade, they are overdue for an AI-first update—simplifying and streamlining the process. We’re focused on removing the frustration of continuous security monitoring so businesses can get on with everything else.”
From Hackers to Cybersecurity Innovators
Astra Security’s foundation is deeply rooted in offensive security. Founders Shikhil Sharma and Ananda Krishna have spent over a decade identifying vulnerabilities for global tech giants such as Microsoft, Adobe, AT&T, Yahoo, and Blackberry. Their expertise led to the creation of Astra Security in 2018, with a vision to modernize pentesting by leveraging AI and automation.
A Growing Customer Base and Industry Recognition
Astra Security’s impact is already evident among mid-sized and large enterprises. Over 25% of its customers include well-known organizations such as Loom, HackerRank, ITC, Olx Autos, Mamaearth, Muthoot Finance, Bonusly, Singapore Trade Exchange, Oscilar, University of Cambridge, CompTIA, and Prime Healthcare. The company’s rapid adoption among leading brands is a testament to its effectiveness in providing fast, actionable security insights.
Solving the Complexity of Modern Cybersecurity
As modern cloud infrastructures become increasingly complex—incorporating APIs, integrations, and multi-AI models—organizations face mounting security challenges. Astra Security is designed to be the single source of security trust, ensuring that businesses can onboard vendors, integrate APIs, and expand their digital footprint without compromising security.
With AI-driven pentesting, businesses can shift left from DevOps to DevSecOps, seamlessly integrating security into their development workflows. Astra Security’s CI/CD integrations enable engineering and security teams to remediate vulnerabilities in record time, minimizing risk and potential financial losses.
In 2023 alone, Astra Security identified and helped remediate over two million vulnerabilities, saving its customers an estimated $69 million in potential losses due to security breaches.
What’s Next for Astra Security?
The newly secured funding will enable Astra Security to further enhance its AI capabilities, expand its detection capabilities into cloud environments, and continue simplifying security for developers and security engineers. As cyber threats grow in complexity, Astra Security remains committed to staying ahead of attackers and ensuring businesses remain protected.
With AI making pentesting continuous, scalable, and developer-friendly, Astra Security is set to redefine cybersecurity standards for the future.
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