StrongestLayer Emerges from Stealth with $5.2M Seed Funding to Combat AI-Powered Email Threats

LLM-native cybersecurity platform addresses the 90 percent surge in phishing breaches as artificial intelligence democratizes nation-state attack capabilities

SAN FRANCISCO, July 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- StrongestLayer, a cybersecurity company developing AI-native email security and human risk solutions, today officially launched from stealth with $5.2 million in seed funding led by Sorenson Capital with participation from Recall Capital.

As generative AI tools become widely accessible, cybercriminals can now create sophisticated, personalized spear-phishing campaigns in seconds with zero technical expertise. Recent research from Harvard Kennedy School shows that AI can fool over 50% of humans while reducing attack costs by 98%, creating detailed profiles on 88% of employees using publicly available data. Meanwhile, 85% of cybersecurity professionals attribute the recent increase in cyberattacks to generative AI use by bad actors. Industry researchers predict this trend will accelerate dramatically, with AI-enhanced phishing expected to become the dominant attack methodology by 2026-2027.

Revolutionizing Email Security with AI-Native Defense

To combat these growing challenges, StrongestLayer has developed the industry's first truly LLM-native cybersecurity platform that fundamentally reimagines how organizations defend against email-based attacks. Traditional email security solutions rely on pattern-matching and static rules, which AI attackers can rapidly circumvent through advanced linguistic manipulation and deep personalization. StrongestLayer's platform uses advanced reasoning and intent analysis to detect malicious communications regardless of how they're worded or weaponized. Beyond detection, this LLM-native understanding enables the platform to train employees to identify and report suspicious emails based on the specific attack patterns targeting their organization.

Developed by Muhammad Rizwan, Joshua Bass and Alan LeFort—cybersecurity experts with deep domain knowledge honed at Proofpoint, FireEye, Mandiant, Google, and McAfee—the platform leverages decades of collective experience in email security and threat intelligence.

"We're witnessing an irreversible transformation in the threat landscape," said Alan LeFort, CEO and Co-Founder of StrongestLayer. "Security experts predict that by 2026-2027, AI-generated attacks will become the dominant form of email threats, growing from today's small percentage to over 20% of all attacks. When sophisticated threats that once required nation-state capabilities can now be created by anyone with AI tools, pattern-matching systems don't just become ineffective—they become obsolete. Our LLM-native approach isn't just catching today's threats—it's architected for the AI-orchestrated threat landscape that is here and growing."

Revolutionary LLM-Native Detection Architecture

StrongestLayer's platform represents a paradigm shift from pattern-based detection to reasoning-based analysis. The company's proprietary "TRACE" (Threat Reasoning AI Correlation Engine) platform orchestrates multiple AI engines to provide expert-level threat analysis, emulating the cognitive capabilities of over 1,000 security analysts. This approach enables the detection of AI-generated attacks that can easily circumvent traditional string-matching rules and blocklists.

The platform also addresses the evolution of phishing attacks—from fake emails to sophisticated schemes where attackers use AI to create fictitious companies that send authentic-looking communications. StrongestLayer has developed predictive campaign detection, which allows it to detect and convict fraudulent phishing sites just days after they are created. In the last 12 months, they have detected and convicted 3.9 million fake company websites.

"Traditional email security was built for a world where attackers needed technical skills to craft convincing phishing emails," said Ken Elefant, Partner at Sorenson Capital. "Now that AI can generate personalized, sophisticated attacks at scale, we need a fundamentally different approach. Alan and his team have deep experience with the limitations of pattern-based detection, and their LLM-native platform is the first solution we've encountered that can truly reason through malicious intent, like a human analyst, but with the speed and scale of a superpowered machine."

"The email security market is massive, but dominated by legacy platforms that weren't built for this AI-driven threat landscape," said Somrat Niyogi, General Partner at Recall Capital. "Alan, Riz, Josh, and the StrongestLayer team deeply understand where the gaps are—and they're taking a fresh, LLM-native approach that's exactly what this market needs right now."

About StrongestLayer

Founded in 2024, StrongestLayer is pioneering LLM-native cybersecurity solutions designed for the AI era. The company's platform combines advanced threat detection with personalized human risk training to protect organizations against both traditional and AI-powered email attacks. Headquartered in San Francisco, StrongestLayer is backed by Sorenson Capital, Recall Capital and leading cybersecurity industry veterans. Learn more at www.strongestlayer.com.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/strongestlayer-emerges-from-stealth-with-5-2m-seed-funding-to-combat-ai-powered-email-threats-302507920.html

SOURCE StrongestLayer