Alice Raises $140 Million in Funding Round Led by Apax Digital, Cementing Israel’s Role in AI Security

In a significant vote of confidence for Israel’s burgeoning AI security sector, Tel Aviv- and New York-based company Alice announced this week the completion of a $140 million financing round. The round, led by global investment firm Apax Digital, brings the company’s total funding to $280 million and values the firm at approximately $800 million, according to sources familiar with the deal. As the company approaches $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), the investment underscores a pivotal shift in how the tech world views the safety and security of artificial intelligence systems.

Alice, which rebranded from its original name ActiveFence, has spent nearly a decade tracking how malicious actors exploit digital platforms. Now, it is applying that hard-won intelligence to one of the most pressing challenges of our time: preventing AI from being manipulated, hijacked, or weaponized. With clients including Anthropic, Google, and Nvidia, and protection extending to eight of the world’s ten leading AI model labs, Alice has positioned itself at the center of a new and rapidly expanding market.

A Landmark Funding Round Led by Apax Digital

The $140 million financing round was led by Apax Digital, the growth equity arm of Apax Partners, with participation from a mix of new and existing investors. The investor roster reads like a who’s who of global tech and finance: Samsung, SentinelOne, Maj Invest, MoreTech, Phoenix Insurance, Norwest, CRV, Vintage, Grove, and Highland Europe all joined the round. The breadth of participation—spanning strategic corporate investors, cybersecurity firms, and institutional insurance players—signals that AI safety is no longer a niche concern but a mainstream investment priority.

For Apax Digital, the investment represents a bet on a company that has demonstrated both technical depth and commercial traction. The firm’s decision to lead the round, rather than merely participate, suggests a strong conviction in Alice’s growth trajectory. The participation of Samsung and SentinelOne is particularly notable, as it indicates that both hardware giants and cybersecurity incumbents see Alice’s technology as complementary to their own offerings.

Valuation of $800 Million and Total Funding of $280 Million

Sources informed financial media that the financing round was completed at a company valuation of $800 million. This figure, while substantial, reflects the company’s rapid ascent since its founding in 2018. The $280 million total raised to date places Alice among the best-funded startups in Israel’s cybersecurity and AI sectors, a crowded field that includes established names like Wiz, Cybereason, and SentinelOne itself.

The valuation also signals a premium for companies that can demonstrate both defensive and offensive AI capabilities. As enterprises and governments grapple with the dual-use nature of generative AI, investors are increasingly willing to pay for solutions that address the full lifecycle of AI systems—from development and deployment to ongoing monitoring and incident response. Alice’s valuation, while not astronomical by recent tech standards, is a clear indicator that the market sees AI safety as a durable, long-term category rather than a passing trend.

Approaching $100 Million in Annual Recurring Revenue

Perhaps the most striking metric in the announcement is Alice’s financial performance. The company’s annual recurring revenue is approaching $100 million, a figure that would place it in the upper echelon of Israeli software companies at a similar stage. For context, reaching $100 million in ARR typically takes a decade or more for enterprise software firms; Alice appears to be on track to achieve this milestone in roughly seven years.

This revenue growth is particularly impressive given the company’s pivot in recent years. Alice did not start as an AI security company in the traditional sense. Its initial focus was on content moderation and online safety, a market that, while important, is often characterized by lower margins and intense competition. The transition to AI security has allowed the company to command higher prices and expand its addressable market significantly.

From ActiveFence to Alice: The Content Moderation Roots

Founded in 2018 as ActiveFence, the company initially developed systems to help social networks and internet platforms detect violent content, fraud, extremist propaganda, disinformation, and coordinated inauthentic activity. This was a demanding and often thankless task, requiring constant vigilance as hostile actors changed their methods and sought to bypass defense mechanisms. The company’s early work involved monitoring dark web forums, encrypted messaging apps, and fringe social networks to understand how bad actors operated.

This foundational work was not glamorous, but it was essential. It gave ActiveFence a proprietary dataset of real-world threats that few other companies could match. The company learned how to identify patterns of abuse, how to attribute attacks to specific actors, and how to build defenses that could adapt in real time. This knowledge, accumulated over years of frontline engagement, would prove invaluable when the AI revolution arrived.

The Founders: Noam Schwartz, Iftach Orr, Alon Porat, and Eyal Dykan

Alice was founded by a quartet of Israeli entrepreneurs with complementary skills. CEO Noam Schwartz brought a vision for how online safety could be systematized and scaled. CTO Iftach Orr provided the technical architecture and engineering leadership needed to build robust detection systems. CCO Alon Porat focused on commercial strategy and client relationships, while President Eyal Dykan handled organizational development and partnerships.

The founders’ decision to rebrand the company from ActiveFence to Alice reflects a strategic shift in focus. The new name, which evokes the idea of a guide leading users through a complex and potentially dangerous landscape, signals a broader ambition. Alice is no longer just about detecting bad content; it is about ensuring that AI systems themselves are trustworthy, safe, and aligned with human values.

The ChatGPT-Era Pivot to AI Security

The launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 and the subsequent rapid penetration of generative AI into the market served as a catalyst for ActiveFence’s transformation. The company realized that the same knowledge it had used to track hostile actors on social platforms could be applied to protecting AI models and the systems built on them. On one hand, criminal actors began using AI tools to produce fraud, phishing attacks, and misleading content at an unprecedented scale. On the other hand, the companies developing these models needed a systematic way to examine how their creations could be misused.

This dual challenge created a new market, and Alice moved quickly to occupy it. The company’s pivot was not a radical departure but rather an extension of its core competencies. The techniques used to detect coordinated disinformation campaigns, for example, are similar to those needed to identify prompt injection attacks or model jailbreaks. The company’s proprietary dataset of real-world threats, built over years of monitoring hostile actors, gave it a unique advantage in understanding how AI systems could be exploited.

Protecting the World’s Leading AI Labs

Alice’s client list reads like a who’s who of the AI industry. The company says it protects eight of the world’s ten leading AI model labs, with security engineers embedded directly inside major platforms and AI labs to identify failures before deployment. Named clients include Anthropic, Google, and Nvidia, three companies at the forefront of AI development.

This level of trust is not easily earned. AI labs are notoriously secretive and protective of their models, yet they have allowed Alice’s engineers to work alongside their own teams. This embedded approach allows Alice to identify vulnerabilities in real time, before they can be exploited by malicious actors. It also gives the company a front-row seat to the latest developments in AI, ensuring that its defenses evolve as fast as the technology itself.

The Threat Landscape: From Malicious Prompts to Autonomous Agents

The threats facing AI systems are diverse and evolving. At the most basic level, there are malicious prompts designed to trick a model into generating harmful content or revealing sensitive information. More sophisticated attacks involve prompt injection, where an attacker embeds hidden instructions in data that the model processes, potentially causing it to take unintended actions. As AI systems become more autonomous, the risks multiply. An autonomous agent with access to financial systems or critical infrastructure could cause enormous damage if compromised.

Alice’s platform, called Rabbit Hole, is designed to address this full spectrum of threats. The name is apt: it suggests a descent into a complex and potentially disorienting environment, where the company’s defenses must be both comprehensive and agile. The platform is built so that defenses evolve as fast as attacks do, using the company’s proprietary threat intelligence to anticipate new attack vectors before they are widely exploited.

A Research Lab of 150 Specialists Protecting 3 Billion Users

Alice operates one of the world’s largest AI security research labs, employing more than 150 researchers dedicated to studying how AI systems can be manipulated or fail. This research arm is a key differentiator, allowing the company to stay ahead of emerging threats rather than merely reacting to them. The researchers publish findings, develop new detection techniques, and work directly with clients to harden their systems.

The company’s reach is staggering. Alice says it protects more than 3 billion users online, a figure that reflects its work with major social platforms and AI labs. This scale gives the company an unparalleled view of the threat landscape, creating a virtuous cycle: more data leads to better defenses, which attract more clients, which generate more data. For a company in the security business, this network effect is a powerful moat.

What This Means for Israel’s Cybersecurity and AI Ecosystem

Alice’s success is a testament to the strength of Israel’s cybersecurity and AI ecosystems. The country has long been a global leader in cybersecurity, with companies like Check Point, CyberArk, and Wiz achieving international prominence. The emergence of Alice as a major player in AI security extends this legacy into a new and rapidly growing field.

The company’s dual headquarters in Tel Aviv and New York reflect the global nature of the AI industry, but its roots are firmly Israeli. The founders are all Israeli, the research lab is based in Israel, and the company benefits from the deep pool of talent produced by the IDF’s elite technology units and Israel’s world-class universities. The Israeli government, through bodies like the Israel Innovation Authority, has long supported cybersecurity research and development, creating an environment where companies like Alice can thrive.

As AI continues to permeate every aspect of daily life, from healthcare to finance to national security, the demand for robust safety and security solutions will only grow. Alice’s $140 million raise is not just a financial milestone; it is a signal that Israel is at the forefront of this critical field. The company’s journey from content moderation to AI security is a quintessentially Israeli story of adaptability, resilience, and technical excellence.

This article was produced with AI-assisted research and editorial support. Sources: The Jerusalem Post, Ynetnews, TPS-IL.