Cogent Security Secures $42M for AI-Driven Cybersecurity

Cogent Security has announced a $42 million Series A funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures and Greylock Partners, with participation from Definition and several prominent angels across artificial intelligence, enterprise software, and cybersecurity.

The company also confirmed that Enrique Salem, former CEO of Symantec, has joined its Board of Directors. Salem has played leadership roles in scaling major cybersecurity firms including Rubrik and Netskope, bringing decades of industry expertise to the growing startup.

Rethinking Vulnerability Management in the Age of AI

Cybersecurity spending continues to rise globally, yet enterprise breaches remain frequent and costly. Industry analysts estimate that organizations manage tens of thousands of vulnerabilities at any given time. The challenge, according to Cogent Security, is no longer visibility — it is execution.

Security teams today are flooded with alerts and findings generated by scanning tools. Meanwhile, AI-powered attackers move faster, automate reconnaissance, and exploit weaknesses within hours. The result is a dangerous gap between detection and remediation.

Cogent Security aims to close that gap.

The company has built AI-driven agents designed to gather deep context about a customer’s infrastructure and software environment. Instead of simply listing vulnerabilities, the system investigates which issues truly matter, prioritizes them based on risk, and helps drive remediation through to completion.

“Our customers don’t need more dashboards,” a company spokesperson said. “They need vulnerabilities resolved.”

From Detection to Autonomous Remediation

Traditional vulnerability management platforms focus heavily on identifying flaws. However, remediation often requires manual coordination across engineering, DevOps, and security teams. This process can take weeks — sometimes months — especially inside large enterprise environments.

Cogent’s approach is built around what it describes as “agentic” security — AI agents that not only analyze data but also take action.

By building a contextual graph across infrastructure and applications, the platform understands how systems are connected, how code moves into production, and where risk exposure is highest. The system then assists teams in resolving the most critical vulnerabilities faster, reducing exposure time and lowering operational burden.

Industry observers note that this shift aligns with broader AI trends across cybersecurity. Companies such as Wiz and Zscaler have highlighted the importance of context and cloud-native visibility. Cogent is pushing further — toward autonomous remediation.

A Leadership Team with Deep Industry Roots

One of Cogent’s strongest differentiators is its team. The founding and leadership group includes security product veterans from companies such as Abnormal Security, Zscaler, and Wiz, combined with AI and software talent from DeepMind, Coinbase, Databricks, Tesla, and Stripe.

This blend of cybersecurity operators and AI engineers positions the company at the intersection of automation, machine intelligence, and enterprise-scale infrastructure.

With Enrique Salem joining the board, investors say the company gains strategic guidance from a leader who has witnessed multiple cybersecurity cycles over the past two decades.

“Execution at scale is what separates promising technology from industry-defining companies,” Salem said in a statement. “Cogent is addressing a real pain point that security teams face every day.”

Where the $42 Million Will Go

The new capital will be used to:

• Expand the platform’s contextual graph across broader infrastructure and software ecosystems
• Pioneer autonomous remediation directly into production environments
• Hire engineering, AI, and enterprise sales talent to deepen partnerships

Venture investors backing the round emphasized that vulnerability management remains one of the largest yet most fragmented areas in cybersecurity. With AI accelerating both attack and defense capabilities, automation in remediation is increasingly seen as essential.

The Bigger Picture

Global cybercrime damages are projected to exceed trillions of dollars annually, according to industry estimates. As enterprises migrate to multi-cloud and hybrid environments, their attack surfaces expand rapidly. Simply identifying vulnerabilities is no longer enough.

The future, experts argue, will belong to platforms that can think, prioritize, and act.

Cogent Security’s Series A funding marks a strong vote of confidence from leading venture firms at a time when investors are becoming more selective in cybersecurity bets. If the company succeeds in turning vulnerability management from a reporting function into an execution engine, it could reshape how enterprises defend themselves.

For now, the company says it remains focused on customers and product development.

“The future of vulnerability management will be agentic,” the company said. “And we’re building it.”