Welcome to The Trident Radar!

Wow wow wow, what a week. $150m over two deals no one saw coming.

Let's dive in.

This weeks Trident Talks!

For those of you that don’t know, we run a weekly podcast with some of the industries finest founders, techies and investors.

This week, Gareth sits down with Michael Coates, Founding Partner at Seven Hill Ventures, and a leader whose career has spanned every corner of the cyber security.

Tenzai – Seed – $75M (Battery Ventures, Greylock, Lux)
Israeli startup Tenzai emerged from stealth with the largest-ever cybersecurity seed round. Founded by Guardicore's team, Tenzai builds AI "autonomous hackers" that continuously pen-test corporate systems.

Sweet Security – Series B – $75M (Evolution Equity)
Tel Aviv's Sweet Security expanded its AI-native cloud defense platform. Founded by a former IDF cyber chief (2023), Sweet offers full-stack Cloud CNAPP with an AI Security Platform (AISP) layer. It uncovers "shadow AI" – finding rogue AI models, LLM servers, or agents – and defends against prompt injection and model misuse.

Self - Seed - $9M (Greenfield Leading)
Zero-Knowledge Identity Verification: San Francisco-based Self (developed by former Celo project leads) secured $9 million in seed funding to grow its privacy-preserving digital identity platform

Seismic – Seed – $10M (a16z Crypto)
San Francisco's Seismic builds privacy-focused Web3 security for fintech and crypto companies. Its platform blends blockchain transparency with confidentiality – enabling fiat-to-crypto on/off ramps and secure card programs on encrypted rails. Polychain and Amber Group also participated.

Japan Cyber Defense – Seed – ¥1B (~$6.7M)
Tokyo's JCD launched MIJXDR, Japan's first sovereign cybersecurity platform. Built entirely in-country for government security compliance, MIJXDR provides real-time threat monitoring and AI-automated operations for banks, manufacturers, and critical infrastructure – keeping data on Japanese soil.

(Honorable Mention) Armis – Pre-IPO – $435M
Armis raised ~$400M at $6.1B valuation – one of 2025's largest private cyber financings. The US-Israeli firm secures unmanaged and IoT devices. This pre-IPO round signals investor appetite for scale in critical security niches and sets up a potential 2026 IPO.

SentinelOne × Prompt Security
SentinelOne acquires Prompt Security (founded 2023) for its runtime AI protection platform preventing data leakage and misuse by AI agents. Prompt provides visibility and control over GenAI tools – detecting sensitive data exposure and enforcing policies against unauthorized AI interactions.

Why it's interesting: This undisclosed cash/stock deal shows incumbents preparing for the AI-in-everything era. SentinelOne extends zero-trust and threat monitoring into the AI application layer. CEO Tomer Weingarten: enabling companies to embrace AI "without compromising safety and security." Expect tighter AI governance integration in mainstream security suites.

Dataminr × ThreatConnect – $290M
AI analytics firm Dataminr buys threat intelligence provider ThreatConnect. Dataminr monitors public data (news, social media, sensors) in real-time; ThreatConnect manages internal threat intel and incident response (TIP and SOAR capabilities). The merger fuses external and internal cyber intelligence for context-specific, actionable alerts.

Other moves: Google's $32B Wiz acquisition nears regulatory approval, if closed, the largest cyber startup exit ever (we all thought it was done last week!). Expect more AI-focused "acqui-hires" following Palo Alto Networks' 2023 pattern.

"For every dollar spent on products, five go to services." That quote from Tenzai’s founder captures the problem — and the opportunity — at the heart of this week's funding surge. Security teams are drowning in complexity. Investors are betting that autonomous platforms, not more people or dashboards, are the answer.

Despite the broader market pullback, VCs made two high-conviction bets this week — $75M rounds for Israeli startups Sweet Security and Tenzai, both using AI to close cybersecurity’s talent and scalability gap. One teaches AI to attack like a red team. The other defends runtime environments from shadow infrastructure and AI agents. The shared thesis? Human-first security models can’t keep up.

Big vendors are following suit this year too. SentinelOne’s Prompt Security acquisition shows endpoint players are prioritizing AI governance. Dataminr’s merger with ThreatConnect points to faster decision-making through AI orchestration. Palo Alto’s recent spree (including CyberArk and Dig Security) underscores that AI-native platforms are now table stakes. The market wants intelligent systems that react and remediate in real time — static point tools no longer cut it.

There’s also a clear premium on pedigree. Tenzai’s founding team (behind Guardicore’s $600M exit to Akamai) secured one of the largest seed rounds in cybersecurity history because they’ve solved real problems at scale. The flight to quality is unmistakable: even as overall Q3 cyber funding fell 33% from Q2, standout founders and well-positioned categories still pulled in oversized rounds.

Tenzai’s attacker bots simulate real-world breaches. The same technology could just as easily be used to automate phishing, evade detection, or poison models. That’s the paradox: AI can break security, or rebuild it stronger — depending on who wields it.

This is why companies are snapping up AI-native monitoring and control layers. Prompt Security’s exit was about keeping internal AI agents safe and compliant before they go rogue. As organizations move faster with LLMs and autonomous agents, the market is shifting from visibility to active guardrails.

The bottom line: Static controls and alert fatigue are giving way to intelligent automation. Today’s winners are building platforms that learn, act, and evolve. If your security solution doesn’t adapt in real time, it risks becoming shelfware. This week’s deals made it clear: AI-powered defense is not optional — it’s foundational.

Fresh off a $9M seed round, Silicon Valley–based Self, led by CEO Eric Nakagawa, is tackling one of the internet’s longest-running unsolved problems: verifying identity without exposing it. Their core product uses zero-knowledge proofs to confirm attributes such as age, citizenship, or credentials without ever revealing the underlying document. Think of it as a digital bouncer who can confirm you’re on the list without ever seeing your ID.

Real Adoption

Self isn’t theoretical. Google already uses its proof-of-humanity tools to verify users without storing passport data. Crypto leaders Aave and Velodrome have adopted Self as well, signalling early traction across both Web2 trust and Web3 privacy ecosystems.

The Technology

Self combines zero-knowledge proofs with verifiable credentials, wrapped in a developer-friendly API. Instead of forcing platforms to ingest sensitive documents, Self allows users to prove statements like “I’m over 18” or “I am this person” without revealing the actual data.

How They Work

Users scan a government ID or biometric passport once. Self then issues an encrypted credential known as a Self Pass. When a service needs verification, it simply asks Self “Are they verified?” and receives a yes/no response — the underlying data never leaves the vault.

Why They Matter

Today’s digital identity market (KYC, AML, age checks, bot detection) relies on heavy document collection and storage. Vendors like Jumio and Onfido work, but require trust in centralized databases of passports, selfies, and sensitive PII.

Self flips the model by minimizing data exposure and leaning into privacy-by-design. It’s exactly the direction regulators and platform owners want identity to move as synthetic identities, deepfakes, and AI-generated fraud accelerate.

Who’s Backing Them

The round brings together Greenfield Capital, SoftBank Ventures, and angels ranging from the Polygon co-founder to Casey Neistat — a mix that bridges deep crypto, mainstream tech, and consumer reach.

The Takeaway

As the web fills with bots, AI personas, and deepfake-driven fraud, platforms need a way to prove who is real without becoming custodians of millions of sensitive documents. Self’s “trust without disclosure” approach offers a path forward — one that could finally reconcile user privacy with platform integrity.

Enterprise Account Executive | East or Central US
Agentic AI platform for modern SOC teams, already at $1M ARR with 10 enterprise customers. High-growth trajectory with strong equity upside. $300K OTE + attractive equity.
Contact: [email protected]

DoD Account Executive | Washington, DC
VC-backed AI-driven GRC and automation platform. Requires strong network across DoD and DoW environments. $300K OTE.
Contact: [email protected]

Account Executive | West Coast, USA
Series B cyber vendor transforming how enterprises manage threat reporting and assessment workflows. Up to $150K base ($300K OTE).
Contact: [email protected]

Account Executive | Central / East Coast US
DSPM platform scaling rapidly across regulated industries. Target metro areas include New York, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago. $300–350K OTE.
Contact: [email protected]

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