Cogent Security Raises $11M for AI Cyber Defense

In an era where the speed of cyberattacks far outpaces the speed of defense, the launch of Cogent Security marks a pivotal moment for the cybersecurity community. Emerging from stealth with an impressive $11 million seed round led by Greylock Partners, alongside Lockstep and strategic angels from organizations like OpenAI, Cogent is setting out to solve one of the most persistent challenges in security: effective, scalable vulnerability management.

Cogent Security Raises $11M to Transform Vulnerability Management with AI

The stakes in cybersecurity have never been higher. The annual number of reported vulnerabilities (CVEs) has grown fivefold in the past decade, while attackers, armed with LLM-powered toolkits, can now weaponize new exploits in under five days. Yet despite the urgency, half of all critical vulnerabilities remain unresolved after two months, due to bottlenecks in the process and resources.

Traditional vulnerability management frameworks are straining under this pressure. Manual workflows, fragmented ownership, and reactive patching cycles create dangerous blind spots. In short, the old way of doing things is no longer enough.

Vision Behind Cogent Security

Cogent Security was founded by Vineet Edupuganti (CEO), Geng Sng (CTO), and Thanos Baskous (VP of Engineering), seasoned veterans with experience at Abnormal AI, Coinbase, and Blackstone. Their mission is bold yet clear: to replace legacy workflows with an AI-native platform that functions as a tireless, expert task force.

At its core, Cogent’s solution is powered by specialized AI agents designed to act with the speed, precision, and judgment of elite security professionals; only this time, they’re available 24/7.

These AI agents autonomously:

• Ingest organizational context in real time
• Prioritize the most critical risks dynamically.
• Recommend and coordinate fixes across teams.
• Orchestrate remediation with minimal manual input.
• Deliver program-level reporting for executives.

By cutting manual intervention by 50%, Cogent empowers enterprises to close the gap between detection and resolution, keeping AI-equipped attackers at bay.

More Than Just Automation

What makes Cogent unique is not simply automation but augmentation. Its AI agents are designed to think and act like the best human security talent, contextualizing vulnerabilities and aligning remediation strategies with business impact.

As Lucas Moody, CISO at Alteryx, put it:

“It’s like having your top security and engineering talent on every issue, around the clock.”

From identifying vulnerable infrastructure and coordinating patch rollouts to preparing compliance reports for upcoming audits, Cogent’s AI agents function as embedded teammates. The result: faster fixes, fewer bottlenecks, and greater organizational resilience.

Backed to Build at Scale

Cogent’s ability to attract backing from Greylock Partners, the same firm behind Palo Alto Networks, Okta, and Abnormal AI, signals deep confidence in its vision. The inclusion of Lockstep and angel investors from OpenAI underscores the relevance of AI in addressing modern threat landscapes.

The seed funding will fuel product development, expand go-to-market operations, and scale the company’s AI engineering team, which already includes top talent from Tesla, Google Research, and Coinbase. With this foundation, Cogent is positioned not just as another cybersecurity startup, but as a category-defining force in vulnerability management.

Why This Matters for the Cybersecurity Community

For CISOs and security leaders, Cogent represents more than a new tool; it represents a new paradigm. Instead of drowning in endless vulnerability reports and firefighting crises, organizations can finally shift toward proactive, program-level security management.

By embedding AI at the center of vulnerability management, Cogent promises to deliver measurable improvements in speed, coverage, and resilience. For enterprises balancing regulatory pressure, limited talent pools, and increasingly sophisticated adversaries, that shift could prove transformative.

Looking Ahead

The cybersecurity industry is no stranger to bold claims, but Cogent Security’s vision is rooted in both necessity and capability. With the right blend of security expertise, AI innovation, and investor backing, Cogent has the potential to usher in a new era where vulnerability management is no longer a fragmented, manual struggle, but a seamless, AI-driven advantage.

As the company scales its platform from Fortune 500s to public institutions, one thing is clear: Cogent is not just launching a product; it’s launching a movement.

Execweb congratulates Cogent Security on this milestone. The $11M seed round underscores both investor confidence and the urgency of addressing vulnerability management with AI-driven innovation. For CISOs and security leaders, partnerships with pioneering vendors like Cogent Security signal the future of cyber defense, where AI taskforces work alongside human teams to deliver speed, precision, and resilience in an increasingly complex threat landscape