Israeli cyber startup Apex gets initial investment from OpenAI's Altman

Israeli cyber security start-up Apex secures investment for AI protection, aiming to enhance security for enterprises adopting AI.

Israeli cyber security start-up Apex, which focuses on protecting the rapid use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, said on Thursday it received an undisclosed investment from OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman.

In all, Apex raised $7 million in a seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Index Ventures, Mr. Altman and others, it said. Mr. Altman did not immediately comment.

Apex said it had been running trials with a number of Fortune 500 companies and investment firms and was close to finalising paid contracts. The new funds will go toward accelerating product development, hiring workers and marketing, the company said.

With demand growing for AI tools — including OpenAI's ChatGPT — that help to complete tasks much faster, their users are seeking ways to protect their own 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 Reuters.

That marked a pivotal moment for the cyber security industry, which until has focused on prevention and blocking unwanted access, he said.

"We started Apex to build the extra layers of security that's needed for enterprises to adopt (AI)," he said. "We will try to take this as far as we can."