Cybersecurity startup GetReal Security has raised $17.5 million in Series A funding to take on the rising wave of AI-generated threats—from deepfakes to voice impersonation and synthetic media.
The funding round was led by Forgepoint Capital, with participation from Ballistic Ventures, Capital One Ventures, Cisco Investments, Evolution Equity, K2 Access Fund, and In-Q-Tel (IQT). This milestone comes less than a year after the company stepped out of stealth mode.
Co-founded by UC Berkeley Professor Hany Farid and incubated within Ballistic Ventures, GetReal Security has been quietly building a powerful platform aimed at safeguarding digital spaces against gen-AI threats. The company focuses on verifying image, audio, and video content, helping organizations detect manipulated media across email, video conferencing, and social media.
Tackling Deepfakes with AI-Powered Detection
GetReal Security’s core product is a unified threat detection platform designed to spot and flag AI-altered content. Whether it’s a fake voice in a phone call or a doctored video on social media, the platform offers real-time content verification and risk mitigation tools that help businesses respond fast.
The company also delivers support services—like incident response with forensic analysis, training for security teams, and help with developing media verification policies. As synthetic content becomes more convincing and harder to detect, these features are becoming crucial.
Broad Adoption Across Key Sectors
So far, GetReal’s solutions have already been adopted by financial institutions, governments, multinational corporations, and media platforms. With digital trust increasingly under attack, organizations are turning to platforms like GetReal to guard against impersonation scams, misinformation, and brand manipulation.
The newly raised funds will go toward research and development, product refinement, and scaling go-to-market efforts, according to the company.
A Critical Moment for AI Safety
“We’re at a tipping point,” said interim CEO and co-founder Ted Schlein. “AI-generated content is about to flood every digital channel. And bad actors are already weaponizing it. That’s why the ability to verify media quickly and accurately is not just important—it’s urgent.”
As generative AI continues to evolve, the need for defensive technologies like GetReal’s will only grow. This funding signals strong investor confidence in the startup’s mission to make the internet a safer place—one verified image, video, or voice clip at a time.
