New York/Tel Aviv, April 21, 2025 — Terra Security, an Agentic AI-native penetration testing service-as-a-software platform, raises $8M in a seed round led by SYN Ventures and FXP Ventures with participation from Underscore VC and notable angel investors including former Google CISO Gerhard Eschelback, Ofer Ben-Noon and Ohad Bobrov, founders of Talon Security, Travis McPeak and Itamar Friedman. Already serving multiple clients, including Fortune 500 companies, Terra will use the funds to advance its platform, expand its AI agents’ capabilities, and grow its customer base.
In sports, there’s a saying that the “best defense is a great offense,” and in cybersecurity, this sentiment also holds weight. Yet, most organizations struggle to conduct continuous penetration testing or red teaming – vital simulations that uncover vulnerabilities before attackers exploit them. Despite their promising potential, these ethical hacking mechanisms are vastly underutilized due to their human-intensive nature, which makes them slow, expensive, and unscalable.
Designed to think like a white hat hacker, Terra’s agentic AI platform conducts continuous web application pen testing. Powered by dozens of fine-tuned AI agents, each tailored to a client’s unique environment, Terra’s agents adapt in real time based on unique business contexts and risks. When new vulnerabilities surface, its agents autonomously launch precise tests, guided by human experts through a human-in-the-loop mechanism for maximum accuracy and reliability with AI.
While existing automated solutions fall short of mimicking an adversary’s behavior at scale, particularly for web applications, Terra’s AI-enabled service brings the combination of the accuracy and depth of skilled human testers with the scale and efficiency of automated solutions. As Terra grows, it plans to introduce an agentic AI red teaming solution to its platform as well as expand to cover organizations’ entire network security.
“In the grand scheme of cybersecurity, ethical hacking has long been underutilized due to its inefficiencies and human dependencies, but we now have the opportunity to bring ethical hacking center stage and beat adversaries at their own arena,” says Shahar Peled, CEO and Co-Founder of Terra. “We strongly believe that our platform will transform the narrative around pen testing and ethical hacking by infusing accuracy, efficiency, business context, and continuous pen-testing via agentic AI. No longer will pen-testing simply be viewed as an item on a compliance checklist, but as the most effective security capability of a robust security posture. We are grateful for all the support and guidance we’ve received from our investors, partners, and customers, and look forward to the journey ahead.”
“We are thrilled to partner with Terra Security as it works to enable all organizations to leverage high-quality offensive security on a continuous basis, at scale,” says Jay Leek, Managing Partner and Founder at SYN Ventures. “We believe the Company’s vision reimagines penetration testing as we know it today, which is long overdue.”
“Cyber threats move fast and manual pen testing can’t keep up,” says Tsahy Shapsa, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at FXP. We backed Terra Security from day one because of its founders – an exceptional team with the rare mix of deep technical chops and relentless execution. Together, we validated the problem and approach through over 100 customer interactions to arrive at our conviction. They’re not just improving penetration testing; they’re redefining it with AI employees who work 24/7, guided by top-tier human expertise. It’s not man vs machine. It’s man plus machine. That’s the future.”
Founded in 2024, Terra offers an agentic-AI platform for continuous web application penetration testing. Enhanced by a human-in-the-loop mechanism, Terra’s dedicated, fine-tuned AI agents perform thousands of best-of-breed tests with unparalleled efficiency, accuracy and robust attack surface coverage. Through tailor-made attacks based on unique business context and risk profiles, Terra is revolutionizing the way enterprises build and run their pentest program. For more information, visit: https://www.terra.security/
SYN Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on investing in disruptive and innovative security companies in the cybersecurity, industrial security, national defense, privacy, regulatory compliance, and data governance industries. The firm’s dedicated security team of former CISOs, CEOs and Founders has a proven track record with over 400 years of combined security investing and operational experience. SYN also has a highly distinguished network of seasoned security advisors and CISOs. For more information, visit: https://www.synventures.com/
FXP Ventures is a next-generation venture studio and investor focused on building transformational companies from the ground up. With a hands-on approach, FXP handpicks exceptional founders, validates ideas, and provides the resources to scale world-changing companies. Backed by a global team of seasoned entrepreneurs and venture capital veterans, FXP leads seed rounds with flexibility, while supporting portfolio companies with talent, capital, and strategic guidance. A key focus for FXP is agentic AI, goal-driven systems that have the potential to reshape entire industries. With roots in the U.S. and Israel, the FXP team brings decades of experience as founders and investors, from zero to exit. For more information, visit: https://fxp.com/
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