Astra Security, a cybersecurity software-as-a-service (SaaS) company specializing in penetration testing (pentesting), has secured $2.7 million in growth capital. The funding round was spearheaded by Emergent Ventures and saw contributions from Neon Fund, Better Capital, Blume Ventures, and PointOne Capital.

Astra Security plans to use this investment to further develop its AI-powered pentesting platform and help businesses combat increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.

Astra Security's platform utilizes artificial intelligence to simulate hacker techniques and uncover vulnerabilities in applications, infrastructure, and APIs. Currently, over 800 engineering teams globally, spanning more than 70 countries, utilize Astra Security's services.

The platform's effectiveness is evident in its discovery of nearly 5,500 vulnerabilities daily in the past year. With the increasing use of AI in code development and the consequent expansion of potential attack surfaces, Astra Security projects a tripling of its vulnerability detection capacity by year's end.

Astra Security's Co-Founder and CEO, Shikhil Sharma, emphasizes the growing complexity of cybercrime, particularly with the emergence of AI-driven attacks. He argues that traditional, infrequent pentesting methods are inadequate in the current threat landscape. Astra Security advocates for continuous pentesting to proactively address evolving threats.

Sharma highlights the need for the cybersecurity industry to catch up with the agile, collaborative, and automated nature of modern engineering practices.

Astra Security was founded in 2018 by Shikhil Sharma and Ananda Krishna, both seasoned experts in offensive security. Their combined decade of experience in identifying vulnerabilities for major tech companies like Microsoft, Adobe, AT&T, Yahoo, and Blackberry provided the foundation for Astra Security's mission to revolutionize pentesting through AI and automation.