How Adaptive Security is Building the Future of Security Awareness in the Age of AI

Adaptive Security, protecting your organization from AI-powered attacks like deepfakes, smishing, and vishing, led by Brian Long and Andrew Jones, has secured $81M Series B from new investors NVIDIA, Bain Capital Ventures, Capital One Ventures, and Citi Ventures, alongside participation from existing investors including the OpenAI Startup Fund, Abstract Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

Less than a year after launch, Adaptive now protects more than 500 enterprise customers, including PayPal, Bose, the NHL, Xerox, Figma, Ramp, Vimeo, and Perplexity. The company continues to collaborate closely with security leaders to refine and enhance the platform daily.

In 2023, conversations with hundreds of CISOs surfaced a clear and growing threat: AI-powered social engineering. Traditional phishing defenses, built for email-based attacks with obvious signals, are no longer sufficient.

Since the rise of large language models, attackers have gained powerful tools to run highly sophisticated scams. In 2024, deepfake-enabled attacks increased 17×, with over 100,000 incidents reported in the U.S. alone. What was once rare is now mainstream; more than half of CISOs have encountered advanced deepfake attacks.

These threats now span SMS, voice calls, and video conferencing, channels that are often lightly protected. Social engineering drives over 95% of successful breaches, increasingly using cloned voices, fabricated videos, and highly personalized tactics that target employees and executives alike.

The platform first identifies real-world exposure by analyzing open-source and company-specific data that attackers can exploit, such as phone numbers, images, and voice recordings. It then runs realistic AI-driven phishing simulations across email, SMS, and voice, including personalized deepfake scenarios.

When employees fail simulations, Adaptive updates risk scores, adjusts access controls, and delivers targeted, scenario-based training instead of generic awareness content. Security teams can also create new training using AI.

Built for global enterprises, Adaptive supports 39+ languages, accessibility controls, role-based access, and SaaS integrations, while providing clear insights to help teams reduce risk as attack methods evolve.

AI is reshaping how cyberattacks are carried out, with social engineering emerging as a primary battleground.

That’s why Adaptive was built. This Series B enables faster product development driven by customer feedback. With the continued trust of security teams, the focus remains clear: helping organizations protect their people as AI transforms the threat landscape.