--- title: "From teen hacker to Iron Dome researcher, this founder raised $28M to fight AI phishing" url: https://daily.dev/posts/from-teen-hacker-to-iron-dome-researcher-this-founder-raised-28m-to-fight-ai-phishing-vo7ykqfim source_url: https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/from-teen-hacker-to-iron-dome-researcher-this-founder-raised-28m-to-fight-ai-phishing type: article source: "TechCrunch" published: 2026-05-19T21:12:41.255Z updated: 2026-05-19T21:16:37.048Z tags: ["security", "llm", "phishing", "ai-security"] reading_time: 2 upvotes: 1 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # From teen hacker to Iron Dome researcher, this founder raised $28M to fight AI phishing **[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 2 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Shay Shwartz, a former teen hacker turned elite Israeli cybersecurity researcher, has launched Ocean, an agentic email security startup that uses a custom small language model to detect AI-powered phishing attacks. The company emerged from stealth with $28M in funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with notable angels including Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport and Armis co-founders. Ocean argues that AI has democratized spear-phishing at massive scale, requiring a new defensive approach beyond traditional vendors like Proofpoint and Mimecast. The platform already analyzes billions of emails monthly for customers including Kayak, Kingston Technology, and Headspace. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [AegisAI, founded by former Google security execs, lands $36M to stop AI-driven spear phishing](https://daily.dev/posts/aegisai-founded-by-former-google-security-execs-lands-36m-to-stop-ai-driven-spear-phishing-arc15kcjp) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Google’s former security leads raise $13M to fight email threats before they reach you](https://daily.dev/posts/google-s-former-security-leads-raise-13m-to-fight-email-threats-before-they-reach-you-ezpi4icv6) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Aryon Security raises $29M to prevent cloud breaches](https://daily.dev/posts/aryon-security-raises-29m-to-prevent-cloud-breaches-djnm84cho) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm), [#phishing](https://daily.dev/tags/phishing), [#ai-security](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-security) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/from-teen-hacker-to-iron-dome-researcher-this-founder-raised-28m-to-fight-ai-phishing-vo7ykqfim)