Eight-month-old Israeli cyber startup Above Security raises $43 million Series A with just 10 employees
Founded by serial entrepreneurs Aviv Nahum and Amir Boldo, Above Security is betting AI agents can finally crack insider threats as enterprises struggle with rising internal risk.
Cybersecurity startup Above Security has raised $43 million in a Series A round led by Merlin Ventures, Ballistic Ventures, and Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from Jump Capital and QPV Ventures.
Within just six months of its founding, the company completed both a $7 million Seed round, led by Merlin Ventures and Norwest, and this latest Series A.
Above was founded in 2025 by Aviv Nahum, a veteran of Unit 81, and Amir Boldo, a veteran of Unit 49, both elite branches of Israel's Unit 8200, and both seasoned entrepreneurs with prior exits. The company has developed a platform designed to identify and respond to insider threats within organizations.
In an interview, Nahum said the company launched in July last year and quickly gained traction. “We operate in the world of internal risk,” he said. “We’ve already delivered significant value to large customers and wanted to scale quickly following strong demand and large contracts.”
He added that early interest from U.S. investors played a key role in the rapid fundraising process. “There was interest from American funds from the very beginning, and Ballistic made a compelling offer. It’s a leading cybersecurity fund, which is a major advantage for us.”
Above’s platform relies heavily on AI-driven automation. “We effectively deploy thousands of AI agents that continuously look for leaks and internal vulnerabilities,” Nahum said. “They conduct full investigations, collecting signals, connecting the dots, and building a complete picture.”
According to Nahum, the system has already identified a range of internal risks, including suspected espionage activity and employees working multiple jobs simultaneously. “We aggregate large amounts of data and turn it into actionable intelligence,” he said. “Our approach is that there are no fixed rules, we build the full investigative process dynamically.”
Despite its rapid growth, the company does not plan to scale headcount aggressively. “We don’t see the need for rapid hiring,” Nahum said. “Everything runs through the cloud, and most of the work is automated. We will grow, but primarily in sales and AI-related roles.”
Above is Nahum’s second startup; his previous company, Ctrl, was acquired by AI firm Sana. Boldo is also an experienced entrepreneur, having co-founded Trullion and previously serving as SVP of R&D at Silverfort.
The company currently employs around 10 people, most of them in Tel Aviv, with additional operations in San Francisco.
Insider threats have become one of the most costly and complex challenges facing organizations. Traditional approaches have struggled to keep up, largely because they rely on predefined rules and assumptions about risk.
At the same time, only a limited number of organizations can afford to operate large, multidisciplinary investigation teams, and even then, responses are often reactive, occurring after damage has already been done.
Above’s platform aims to change that by making internal risk management proactive. Its system uses dozens of AI agents that operate continuously across an organization’s systems, analyzing both human and machine behavior to detect threats in real time.
Unlike traditional tools, the platform does not rely on predefined rules. Instead, it combines real-time intervention, aimed at stopping risky behavior, with automated generation of evidence timelines that can be used by security, legal, and HR teams.
The rise of AI agents is further complicating the threat landscape. As organizations increasingly deploy autonomous systems to search for data, transfer files, and perform tasks, the definition of an “insider” is expanding beyond human employees.
“In a future where AI will operate most complex systems, humans will not disappear—they will level up. Those who supervise and manage automation will hold real power within organizations. But with that power also comes risk: human error or an insider threat can have a much faster and far deeper impact,” said Shay Michel, Managing Partner at Merlin Ventures. “Above is building a protection layer that empowers people, reduces mistakes, and prevents insider threats before they become incidents. In an AI-accelerated world, true resilience begins with people.”
