Kevin Mandia testifies during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing at the Capitol on February 23, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
Four years ago, Kevin Mandiant agreed to sell his cybersecurity company Mandiant to Google for $5.4 billion. Now, he’s back in the game with the help of Google.
On Tuesday, Mandya startup Almadine announced it had raised approximately $190 million in a funding round led by Accel. In addition to Google Ventures, other companies participating include Kleiner Perkins, Menlo Ventures, and Ballistic Ventures, which was co-founded by Mandia.
In an interview with CNBC, Mandia said the emergence of artificial intelligence, particularly agent AI, is having a dramatic impact on cybersecurity. Armadin creates and manages autonomous AI agents that continuously scan for threats.
“We weren’t going to sit on the sidelines and watch new changes in cybersecurity without leveraging our 30 years of experience in the industry,” Mandia said.
As the sophistication, speed, and intensity of attacks increase across the technology world, companies are scrambling to provide more AI-enabled tools and acquire cyber capabilities to strengthen their defenses. Mandia co-founded Armadin in September, and in the past six months the company has hired more than 60 people and started working with Fortune 100 companies.
Mandia said Armadin can use agent tools to complete tasks in minutes that previously took days. He said he came up with the company’s name in the middle of the night, remembering the Spanish Armada of 1588.
“Somehow my brain remembered eighth-grade history,” he said.
Attention: The world of cyber threats is becoming specialized
