AI Security startup P0 Secures $6.5M Seed Funding from Lightspeed

P0, an AI security startup founded by Kunal Agarwal and Prakash Sanker, has raised $6.5 million in seed funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, emphasizing its commitment to eliminating data exploits through its innovative LLM-first approach to securing APIs.

P0 takes a unique approach by working collaboratively with developers during code-building rather than merely checking for issues post-development. The platform is an intelligent assistant that examines the entire code for potential vulnerabilities and conducts thorough testing using context-specific inputs.

Lightspeed Venture Partners, known for its successful portfolio, including OYO, ShareChat, and BYJU’S, led the $6.5 million seed funding round for P0. The investment reflects Lightspeed’s strategic interest in addressing code and API security challenges through a comprehensive LLM-first methodology.

“We have known the founders for a long, long time, and they are at the absolute cutting edge of using LLMs in production to solve this age-old problem,” Hemant Mohapatra, partner at Lightspeed India, said.

Global AI Trend

Kunal Agarwal, a seasoned entrepreneur with a successful track record, co-founded P0 as his second venture with Lightspeed.

His prior startup, Priority Vendor, funded by Lightspeed in 2016, was acquired by Softbank-funded C2FO in 2019. Prakash Sanker, with a robust background in computational sciences and mathematics from Stanford University, brings valuable experience from his time at Splunk and Palantir.

“P0’s cutting-edge approach to coding and API security is unique and amongst the first ever truly LLM-native ways of solving this age-old and ever-evolving problem. We are excited to have incubated and backed them from when this was just an idea on paper,” Mohapatra said.

P0’s funding comes when AI solutions are gaining traction among Indian founders and startups to address various challenges. Recently, Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal’s third startup, Krutrim, secured $50 million in funding, positioning itself as India’s first AI unicorn.

The trend is further highlighted by Sarvam AI, a generative AI startup that raised $41 million in a Series A funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

The $6.5 million seed funding secured by P0 underscores the growing significance of AI in tackling cybersecurity challenges. As AI startups continue to attract substantial funding, the industry’s potential for addressing complex issues is becoming increasingly evident.

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