Illustration for: Empirical Security Raises $25M for AI Exposure Management

Empirical Security Raises $25M for AI Exposure Management

Chicago-based Empirical Security raised a $25 million Series A to build predictive models that forecast which vulnerabilities will actually be exploited.

By the Numbers

$25M Series A
Raise
$37M
Total funding
Brightmind Partners
Lead investor
Chicago, IL
HQ
Empirical Security
TC
By the Funding Desk
Edited by Trace Cohen · Early-stage VC & angel · Founder, New York Venture Partners
1 min read
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THE RUNDOWN

1

Empirical Security raised a $25M Series A led by Brightmind Partners, bringing the Chicago-based cybersecurity startup's total funding to $37M as exposure-management and AI-driven vulnerability prediction become one of security's hottest sub-categories

2

The company builds foundational and predictive models that forecast which vulnerabilities are likely to actually be exploited, moving past static CVSS scoring toward AI-driven prioritization for teams drowning in unpatched-vulnerability backlogs

3

It competes conceptually with established exposure-management players like Tenable and Rapid7 as well as newer entrants such as Nucleus Security, leaning harder on predictive modeling than aggregation and dashboarding

4

Existing seed investors Costanoa Ventures and Hyde Park Angels returned for the round -- a notable Chicago-based raise in a category dominated by Bay Area names

TC

The VC Read · Trace's Take

Trace Cohen

Chicago-based security raises this size don't happen often, which is exactly why it's worth clocking: Costanoa and Hyde Park Angels doubling down on their seed bet is a stronger signal than the headline number. Exposure management is getting crowded, but 'predict what actually gets exploited' is a sharper wedge than 'aggregate more CVEs' -- watch whether Tenable or Rapid7 responds by acquiring rather than building this capability themselves.

Analysis

Empirical Security raised a $25 million Series A led by Brightmind Partners, announced July 20, bringing the Chicago-based cybersecurity startup's total funding to $37 million. The company builds foundational and predictive models that forecast which vulnerabilities are actually likely to be exploited in the wild, moving past static CVSS scoring toward AI-driven prioritization for security teams drowning in unpatched-vulnerability backlogs.

It competes conceptually with established exposure-management players like Tenable and Rapid7 as well as newer entrants such as Nucleus Security, but leans harder on predictive modeling rather than aggregation and dashboarding. Existing seed investors Costanoa Ventures and Hyde Park Angels returned for the round, a vote of continuity in a Chicago-based security startup, a geography that rarely produces headline security rounds against Bay Area-dominated competitors.

Coming the same day as Neo's $100 million stealth launch into agent security, it's a second data point for a theme gaining real momentum heading into H2 2026: AI predicting and securing AI-era risk pulling investor attention away from generic AI-powered security tooling.

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Empirical SecurityEmpirical Security Raises $25M to Predict AI-Era Exploits

Key Sources

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SourceFinSMEs
SupportAxios
AnalysisValue Add Pulse

Reported by Axios · First reported by FinSMEs · Analysis by Value Add Pulse.

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