SplxAI Raises $2M for Chatbot Cybersecurity Amid Rising Threats

SplxAI, a start-up that aids companies in protecting their AI chatbots from cyberattacks, has secured a multi-million dollar investment to fund its expansion. The company was founded earlier this year and is expected to announce this week that it has garnered $2 million from investors led by Inovo.vc, South Central Ventures, and Runtime Ventures. 
 
The startup aims to address the glaring security gaps in conversational AI. Chatbots are now used by over 1.5 billion people worldwide and have become an integral part of many businesses' customer service strategies. SplxAI's mission is to protect these platforms from potential cyber threats. 
 
To do so, they've developed an advanced security platform named Probe, which can detect vulnerabilities in chatbot systems before they're exploited by malicious hackers. This preemptive approach helps safeguard both corporate data and client information against potential breaches. 
 
Angel investors such as David Politis, founder of BetterCloud, and Elad Schulman, who sold his company Segasec to Mimecast, have participated in SplxAI's pre-seed round funding. 
 
AI chatbot security has become a critical issue due to the rapid growth of their use within recent years; large corporations often utilize them instead of employing extensive customer service teams. Some tech giants like Microsoft and OpenAI—whose ChatGPT system is one of the world's leading ones—have been victims of data breaches due to lax cybersecurity measures with their AI tools. 
 
Recently, SplxAI identified 'content bias vulnerabilities' within IKEA’s AI assistant, which showed ethnic bias responses causing reputational damage risk alongside loss of customers’ trust. 
 
Kristian Kamber (a sales executive) co-founded this innovative venture with Ante Gojsalić (an AI consultant). "We're witnessing a paradigm shift in GenAI security," said Mr. Kamber, who also serves as CEO for SplxAI, adding, “There’s an ever-growing demand for continuous proactive security systems to vigilantly monitor conversational AI in businesses and customer communication." 
 
Market research anticipates a significant growth in demand for generative AI security products—from $7bn this year to an estimated $40bn by 2030. 
 
The new funding will primarily be used to speed up product development, augment the workforce, and expand operations, especially within the US market. 
 
Karol Lasota, a principal at Inovo.vc, said: "In the AI gold rush, sell shovels. Splx aims to be one of those key'shovels' in the GenAI space. They ensure these'shovels', or chatbots in this case, do not malfunction or behave detrimentally." 
 
Jure Mikuz, managing partner at South Central Ventures, added that cybersecurity tools serve as innovation protectors within GenAI-powered industries; they safeguard sensitive data against cyber threats that evolve rapidly alongside technological advancements.