Rilian Secures $17.5 Million in Seed Funding to Advance Agentic AI for Cyber and Defense Operations

8VC and other top defense tech VCs back Rilian’s mission to accelerate adoption and automation of cutting-edge cyber & defense capabilities by the U.S., Allied governments and commercial markets

Rilian, a provider of AI-native cybersecurity and defense systems integration capabilities, today announced that it has raised $17.5 million in seed and seed extension funding. The round was led by 8VC, First In, and Tamarack Global, with participation from Protego Ventures, 8090 Industries, Liquid 2 Ventures and Perot Jain. The round will fuel Rilian’s expansion across the United States, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and other Allied nations, including go-to- market efforts, engineering talent acquisition, and research and development in agentic AI-powered cyber and defense technology solutions for commercial markets and nation‑scale environments.

Operation Epic Fury and the war in Ukraine illustrate how AI-enabled systems act as decisive force multipliers in hybrid conflicts, blending kinetic strikes with cyber operations targeting governments, the private sector and critical infrastructure alongside electronic warfare, information operations, and proxy forces, creating dense data environments that exceed human processing capacity alone. Adversaries empowered by AI act at machine speed while corporate and government security teams are often constrained by human inefficiency and technological latency in detection in response. But defenders can leverage AI as a force multiplier by expanding the effective capacity for analytic detection, countermeasures, and targeting through automation. They can enable faster, more precise cross-domain responses than an adversary can match, and they can allow otherwise overmatched and outnumbered teams to generate disproportionate effects in cyberspace, the electromagnetic spectrum, and the physical domain.

Founded by leading AI security and defense operators, Christian Schnedler, Nick Pompeo, and Dan Fischer, Rilian developed its marquee agentic security orchestration platform, Caspian, to provide a curated arsenal of best-in-class cyber and defense technology capabilities, autonomous delivery, and a single command layer across organizations’ stacks and toolsets. The AI-native platform allows governments and the private sector to rapidly access, securely deploy, and intelligently automate new security capabilities across private or sovereign cloud, on‑premise, air‑gapped, and compliance-constrained environments. Its pre-trained AI agents are capable of amplifying every analyst’s productivity through automation, learning from and anticipating adversaries’ attacks, capturing institutional knowledge, and flattening the learning curves related to new capabilities and new staff onboarding.

“For many national security organizations, the challenge of executing their mission is not a lack of budget or technology; it is the effective utilization of technical capabilities with limited skilled manpower,” said Christian Schnedler, CEO and Co-Founder of Rilian. “Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv, Northern Virginia, and other innovation hubs regularly produce impactful capabilities. Unfortunately, these take years to scale within governments at home, yet alone deploying to global conflict zones where defenders need them most. Rilian was built to turn security into an execution success, not a procurement and human staffing problem.”

Global cybersecurity and risk management spending recently surpassed $200bn annually, according to Gartner, with continued growth expected. The global government and public‑sector cybersecurity market will grow from roughly $45–50 billion in 2025 to more than $70 billion by 2030 as the U.S., NATO allies, and partner governments harden critical infrastructure and adopt zero‑trust and sovereign cloud architectures, according to industry research.

Schnedler continued, “This funding accelerates our mission to ensure that the U.S. government, its Allies and critical infrastructure providers globally can access and operationalize the most advanced security capabilities through the power of agentic AI –  with the speed, trust, and compliance their missions demand.”

 Lital Leshem, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Protego Ventures: “Israel’s comparative advantage in cybersecurity and defense innovation is now meeting growing demand from the United States and Gulf countries. However, a key gap remains in the ability to bridge development and operational deployment within sovereign and complex environments. Rilian operates precisely at this intersection, building the infrastructure that enables advanced capabilities to move across markets and become effective at a national scale.”

 Momentum Across the U.S. and Allied Nations

Rilian’s traction underscores the urgency of the problem it solves. In July 2025, the company signed a landmark contract with the UAE Cybersecurity Council, the UAE’s national cybersecurity powerhouse, to secure the country’s critical infrastructure. Under the agreement, the UAE’s National Security Operations Center (NSOC) is implementing Caspian to integrate, operate, and automate cybersecurity solutions across operational technology (OT) environments, with dedicated AI agents developed and trained to assess risks and respond to threats autonomously at the national level. The project will leverage advanced technologies from prominent partners both within the UAE, the U.S. and global allies.

The company has also forged strategic partnerships with leading cyber and defense technology providers, hyperscalers, and foundational AI large language model developers, including SentinelOne, Censys and SimSpace.

Rilian is an agentic systems integrator built for the AI-native era of security. Its platform, Caspian, gives defense and security teams a single command layer across their entire stack — pre-trained agents amplify every analyst, capture institutional knowledge, and deploy into air-gapped, sovereign, and compliance-restricted environments in days, not years. Founded by lifelong practitioners, Rilian’s mission is to enhance global security by promoting cutting-edge cyber and defense capabilities among the U.S. and its Allies.

Credit: Protego Ventures