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The SOC Is Evolving: Why We Raised $15.5M to Accelerate the AI-Powered Future of Detection and Response

Written by Kumar Saurabh | Jul 9, 2025 4:38:31 PM

By Kumar Saurabh

For more than two decades, I’ve had the privilege of working on the front lines of cybersecurity – from building the first generation of SIEM at ArcSight, to launching cloud-native analytics at Sumo Logic, to helping organizations automate detection and response with LogicHub.

Throughout all of it, one thing has remained clear: great security requires speed, context, and precision. And most organizations, especially mid-sized businesses, just don’t have the resources to deliver that consistently. Even many larger enterprises struggle to staff and operate an effective SOC 24 hours a day.

That’s why we started AirMDR.

Bringing Fortune 500-Grade Protection to Everyone

At AirMDR, our mission is simple. We believe that every business, regardless of size or budget, deserves the same level of detection and response as the Fortune 500.

To make that possible, we built an AI-native SOC platform that fuses the best of both worlds: expert-level AI that triages 95 percent of all alerts in under 5 minutes, and a team of experienced analysts who supervise, validate, escalate, and improve on those findings.

The result is not just automation for the sake of automation. It’s a new standard of coverage, clarity, and control – one that gives security teams the speed they need, and the confidence they’ve been missing.

$15.5M to Scale a Proven Model

Today, I’m proud to share that we’ve raised $15.5 million in seed funding, led by Race Capital with continued backing from Foundation Capital and Storm Ventures. This funding will help us scale our reach, expand our partner network, and continue pushing the boundaries of what our AI analysts can deliver.

More importantly, it validates what we’re seeing in the market: real traction, real value, and real momentum.

This Is Working – And Customers Are Feeling the Impact

We’re already running in production across multiple enterprises. In one deployment, our AI is now triaging nearly 80 percent of security findings, allowing the customer’s SOC team to focus their time and talent where it matters most.

As Workato CISO, Hans Gustavson, shared:

“AirMDR has significantly accelerated our time to value. We were able to quickly integrate with our systems and deploy automation playbooks with minimal overhead. Today, AirMDR is triaging nearly 80 percent of our security findings, allowing our SOC team to stay focused on the most critical threats. Beyond the technology, the AirMDR team has been an outstanding partner, responsive to our needs and quick to deliver new connectors and enhancements that align with our security objectives.”

That’s exactly the kind of partnership and impact we set out to create.

And it’s not just customers who are noticing. We were recently recognized in the 2025 Black Hat Startup Spotlight for our depth of innovation. It’s a meaningful milestone for our team and a signal that what we’re building resonates across the broader security community.

The SMB and MSSP Opportunity Is Massive – and Underserved

The SMB and MSSP Opportunity Is Massive – and Underserved


Ransomware groups don’t care about company size. Their model is built on speed, scale, and opportunity. That means small and mid-sized businesses are now very much in the blast radius, even if they aren’t the intended target.


Too often, they turn to traditional MDRs or MSSPs and are left with delays, unclear outcomes, or services that feel like a black box. We hear this constantly.

With AirMDR, we’re changing that. We deliver enterprise-grade MDR as a fully managed service, with AI-powered speed, plain-English answers, and a collaborative human backstop. For partners and MSSPs, we provide a scalable way to expand services without scaling staff.

This isn’t a patch on an old model. It’s a fundamental rethinking of what MDR should be.

The Future of the AI SOC Is Already Here

Level 4 autonomous operations are no longer a lab experiment. They’re delivering results in the field, improving speed, boosting precision, and giving teams visibility into what’s happening and why.

Still, I don’t believe we’re headed toward a world of fully autonomous SOCs. Security will always require judgment, nuance, and human oversight. But when AI is paired with human analysts, the outcome is unlike anything we’ve had before.

That’s the future we’re building: intelligent automation that acts instantly, backed by real people who provide the oversight, expertise, and accountability security teams expect.

Want to See What’s Possible?

If you want to experience how fast, clear, and effective an AI-native SOC can be, we’d love to show you.
Schedule a demo today and see it in action. >>

We’re just getting started.

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Want to learn how AirMDR helps teams achieve these outcomes in weeks, not months?
Schedule a demo today and see it in action. >>