UK AI security startup Mindgard today (5 September) announced that IQ Capital and Lakestar have invested £3m in seed funding to accelerate growth and expand operations.
Mindgard was developed under the aegis of Lancaster University and harnesses PhD-level research in AI security to help organisations secure their AI assets. It is said to be interoperable with most cybersecurity systems.
“Today’s businesses are rapidly embracing LLMs and other AI technologies. Although these enterprises understand the need to secure their AI assets, the cybersecurity that worked for them in the past won’t help guard their AI against the next generation of cyber threats,” said co-founder Dr Peter Garraghan, CEO at Mindgard and a professor at Lancaster University. “This leaves companies open to the possibility of AI models and data being stolen or compromised, as well as disabling attacks from bad actors.
“With this seed funding, Mindgard now becomes available to enterprises who need to protect their operations against the rapidly-evolving AI threat landscape. We are defining and driving the security for AI space, and believe that Mindgard will quickly become a must-have for any enterprise with AI assets.”
According to a Gartner survey last year, 41% of organizations surveyed had experienced an AI privacy breach or security incident. Of those reported incidents, 60% were data compromises by an internal party, while 27% were malicious attacks on the organization’s AI infrastructure. A survey from Gartner in August this year showed that generative AI has become an emerging risk for enterprises and a top concern for risk executives.