AI-driven critical infrastructure cybersecurity startup Dream raises $100M at $1.1B valuation – News

Dream, an artificial intelligence startup that provides cybersecurity to governments and critical infrastructure, said today it has raised $100 million in early-stage funding at a $1.1 billion valuation.

The round was led by Bain Capital Venture, and other investors participating in the Series B round included Group 11, Tru Arrow, Tau Capital and Aleph.

The startup was co-founded by Shalev Hulio, chief executive of Dream, in 2023. He’s known for being the co-founder and former CEO of the controversial NSO Group, the creator of Pegasus, a type of spyware that covertly targets mobile devices. Hulio founded Dream alongside Sebastian Kurz, former prime minister of Austria. After leaving their positions in NSO and government, Hulio and Kurz used their expertise in enterprise and national entities’ security needs to build the company.

“Sophisticated cyberattacks on our critical infrastructure are increasing in prevalence and complexity,” said Kurz. “During my time as prime minister, I saw firsthand how these attacks can cause real human damage, and have the capacity to disrupt society at large.”

To thwart these attacks, the company has built up a stable of AI models including large language models trained on past cyberattacks and another for anomaly detection. Hulio said the company intends to use the funding to develop more sophisticated models to protect critical infrastructure and improve its existing foundational series.

The company said it developed a first-of-its-kind family of language models called “cyber language models” specifically trained in cybersecurity operations. It did this because cybersecurity threats against governments, hospitals, energy infrastructure and other targets have become ever more sophisticated with time. Automating security requires specialized complex security tasks that cannot be handled by generalized AI, as well as training based on data drawn from actual attacks, networking and a deep understanding of how hackers operate.

By modeling both the defensive network architecture and the behavior of hackers, Dream said, it can use predictive AI modeling to tackle known threats as they emerge and prepare for unknown threats before they happen. “We founded Dream to deliver a solution that truly works for nations, specifically because it was designed with their needs in mind,” said Hulio.

In the past, hackers have shut down major fuel pipelines in the U.S. using ransomware, such as when Colonial Pipeline Co. was hit in 2021. More recently hackers stole customer data from AT&T Inc. and breached the U.S. government office that reviews foreign investments for national security risks, The Committee on Foreign Investment, or CFIUS.

Many of these attacks are thought to be led by nation-state-backed attackers, such as the AT&T attack, which was reportedly the work of Chinese hackers, according to Reuters. In addition, other telecommunication networks were also hit including Charter Communications, Consolidated Communications Inc., Windstream Holdings Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Lumen Technologies Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. The attack on CFIUS was also believed to be led by a China-backed hacking operation.

Although the network attacks against the telecom networks primarily customer data, these kind of breaches are part of probes for other vulnerabilities that could lead to outages, tapped communications and broader national security implications.

The company said it intends to expand its operations by opening new offices in new regions including the United States and South America. Dream is headquartered in Israel, with offices in Tel Aviv, Vienna and Abu Dhabi.

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