Apate.AI raises $11.4M Seed to turn AI scammers against themselves
What's the deal? Australian cyber intelligence startup Apate.AIDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised $11.4 million in a Seed round led by Silicon Valley's Lobby CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. OIF VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, InvestibleDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Concept VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Baobab VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → also took part.
What does it do? Apate builds armies of adversarial conversational AI agents that infiltrate fraud networks. Its voice and text agents mimic real victims to waste scammers' time and extract real-time intelligence for banks, telcos, and governments.
By the numbers: The round ranks among the largest Seed rounds ever raised by an Australian security startup, in the top 1% of 134 comparable deals. Apate previously raised $2.5 million, led by OIF, a year ago.
Why now? The scam industry costs around $1.4 trillion a year globally, and most existing tools only detect fraud after it happens. The round also lands amid a regulatory shift toward proactive defences, turning fraud prevention into a balance-sheet obligation for institutions.
The proof: Client CBADealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has run more than 2.5 million autonomous conversations with threat actors, extracting over 250,000 intelligence artefacts. Some conversations with scammers have lasted as long as two hours.
Where's the money going? The capital funds international expansion and platform development. Apate has become US-incorporated as a Delaware company, with cofounder and chief product officer Peter Eckermann relocating to lead its North American push. A London office opens next quarter to serve Europe, while tech and research teams stay in Sydney.
What they said: "Our agents engage scammers directly, waste their time and money, and turn their tactics into intelligence that protects the people they target," said cofounder and chief executive officer Dali Kaafar. Lobby Capital partner Buddy Arnheim said scammers "are just getting started" as they embrace AI.
The signal: As fraudsters scale up with AI, defenders are shifting from passive detection to active disruption. Apate's raise — and its US move — signals investor appetite for offence in a market long dominated by defence.
Read more: startupdaily.net
Image credit: apate.ai
