Dreadnode Secures $14M to Build AI Systems that Advance the State of Offensive Security

The company reveals two new advanced offensive AI solutions—Strikes and Spyglass—that represent capabilities at the intersection of AI and offensive security

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February 25, 2025 – Dreadnode, the company at the forefront of offensive AI research and development, today released two new solutions and announced its $14 million Series A funding round, led by Decibel, with participation from Next Frontier Capital, In-Q-Tel (IQT), Sands Capital, and Indie VC. The investment supports the company’s mission to advance the state of offensive security, enabling more effective evaluation, testing, and deployment of AI systems.

Dreadnode is building the most advanced offensive AI platform for the best offensive teams, researchers, and model developers in the world. Dreadnode defines offensive AI as 'the demonstration of parity with, or exceeding of, human capabilities in the offensive security domain.’ The platform was built in close collaboration with the company’s trusted government, enterprise, and AI labs partners. With today’s release of Strikes and Spyglass, it now features three flagship solutions:

• Strikes: Build and execute cyber evaluations that both test AI capabilities and generate valuable training data for models and agents. 
• Spyglass: AI red team toolkit that probes AI systems for vulnerabilities, enabling data-driven security decisions for safer model deployments.
• Crucible: AI hacking sandbox where thousands of practitioners test, learn, and advance their AI red team skills.

“The evaluation tools we’re building enable applied research in the offensive security domain. We’re equipping practitioners with the tools required to explore what’s possible when AI is applied—at scale—to offense,” said Will Pearce, founder and CEO of Dreadnode. “We’ve seen what AI is capable of across other domains—why should offensive security be different?”

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Dreadnode was founded in 2023 by Will Pearce, who built the AI red teams at Microsoft and NVIDIA, and Nick Landers, an accomplished offensive security engineer, VP of Research, and author of the Dark Side Ops penetration testing and adversary simulation trainings. Early supporters and investors include Jon Oringer, Aviso Ventures, and others. Over the past year, Dreadnode welcomed 15 employees, forming a founding team uniquely qualified to tackle the hardest problems at the intersection of AI and offensive security. Combining domain knowledge across data science, offensive security engineering, they bring diverse perspectives and rare, hands-on experience from NVIDIA, Microsoft, Meta, Cohere, NetSPI among other leading innovators.

“With great power comes great responsibility, and there is no more important field in AI than understanding how attackers can leverage AI products for their own use and abuse” shared Jon Sakoda, Founding Partner at Decibel. “We can’t build great defensive solutions against AI-driven attacks without first pushing the boundaries of what AI models can do when used by advanced adversaries. Dreadnode has the right combination of elite AI and cybersecurity research to be the trusted partner to enterprises and governments who are on the front lines defending our digital borders. We are excited to be a part of their journey.”

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“Machine learning is a unique technology, often difficult to integrate with traditional systems and drive practical outcomes. At the same time, security teams can’t ignore its potential,” shared Nick Landers, co-founder and CTO at Dreadnode. “Through a research-driven approach, we are demonstrating that security teams can leverage AI to effectively perform offensive tasks. AlphaGo, OpenAI Five, and AlphaFold are amazing examples of research teams showing what AI can do when you bring domain expertise and data to the table; Dreadnode is going to be this example for the offensive security industry.”

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Visit www.dreadnode.io to learn more and tune in to a live stream on Wednesday, March 12 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET to hear from the founders.

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‍About Dreadnode

Dreadnode is at the forefront of offensive AI research and development, building AI systems that demonstrate parity with, or exceed, human capabilities in the offensive security domain. 

Founded in 2023 by Will Pearce and Nick Landers, Dreadnode is developing the most advanced suite of offensive AI solutions—Strikes, Spyglass, and Crucible—for the best offensive teams, researchers, and model developers in the world.

In collaboration with its government, enterprise, and AI labs partners, and support from Decibel, In-Q-Tel (IQT), NFC, Sands Capital, Indie VC, Aviso Ventures, Jon Oringer, and others, Dreadnode aims to create a world where we can trust AI systems to perform offensive tasks autonomously. 

Learn more at www.dreadnode.io or follow us @dreadnode.

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Contact

Tori Norris

Head of Marketing, Dreadnode

tori@dreadnode.io 

Signal: tori.777