Former Teen Hacker Raises $28 Million to Fight AI Phishing Threats

Shay Shwartz, founder of cybersecurity startup Ocean, raised $28 million to develop email security platform designed to counter AI-powered phishing attacks.

Shwartz’s journey into cybersecurity began as teenager who engaged in hacking for profit but chose to pivot after being caught at age 16.

“AI just made the entire process automatic, so the scale is much, much bigger now,” Shwartz expressed, talking to TechCruch. “I can instruct LLM to go and understand exactly who you are, harvest large amount of public information, and create those phishing attacks very targeted against you.”

Instead of launching attacks, he dedicated over decade to defending systems holding senior roles in Israel’s elite defense and intelligence units. He contributed to projects like Iron Dome missile defense system. He later worked at Axis, a firm that HPE acquired, before launching his own venture two years ago.

Ocean recently emerged from stealth mode with new funding round that Lightspeed Venture Partners led. The investment also included participation from Picture Capital and Cerca Partners along with high-profile angel investors. Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport and Armis co-founders Yevgeny Dibrov and Nadir Izrael participated as angel investors.

“We invested in a team and a vision, but the thesis was undeniable. AI broke email security, and it handed attackers an unfair advantage overnight. What stood out was that the team came from the offensive side,” Mike Fey, co-founder and CEO of Island. “They don’t just understand the threat landscape – they used to shape it as attackers. AI is a prime technology to solve it once and for all. It excels at understanding language, intent, and context. Exactly what email security solution requires. Right team, right time.” 

The capital will support growth of Ocean, an agentic email security solution that utilizes artificial intelligence to detect fraud and impersonation attempts. Ocean uses proprietary small language model to analyze context of each email focusing on sender intent and organizational behavior. Platform does not rely on rules or known threat signatures.

This design catches AI-generated spear-phishing attacks that traditional filters may miss. Phishing attempts surged 47% year-over-year with AI-generated attacks now bypassing traditional email filters at alarming rates. Ocean is already processing billions of emails per month for customers including Kayak, Kingston Technology, and Headspace.

The raise comes as enterprises scramble to defend against increasingly sophisticated social engineering campaigns powered by large language models. Traditional email security systems struggle to identify AI-crafted messages that mimic legitimate communication patterns making new defensive approaches essential.