Ocean raises $28M for agentic email security against AI phishing attacks

Shay Shwartz, a former teenage hacker turned elite cybersecurity expert, has raised $28 million for his stealth startup Ocean, an agentic email security platform designed to counter AI-generated phishing attacks. After being caught hacking at 16, Shwartz spent a decade in top-tier defense roles, including work on Israel's Iron Dome project, before co-founding Ocean with CTO Oran Moyal. The funding round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Picture Capital and Cerca Partners, and high-profile angels including Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport and Armis co-founders.

Ocean claims its proprietary small language model can analyze email context to detect fraud and impersonation with greater precision than traditional vendors like Proofpoint or Mimecast. As AI makes spear-phishing automated and scalable, Ocean's approach acts as a personalized guard for every inbox. The platform already processes billions of emails monthly for customers such as Kayak, Kingston Technology, and Headspace, and aims to make enterprise inboxes safer against a new wave of AI-driven threats.