Rilian Secures $17.5 Million in Seed Funding to Advance Agentic AI for Cyber and Defense Operations

8VC and other top defense tech VCs back Rilian’s mission to accelerate adoption and automation of cutting-edge cyber and defense capabilities by the U.S., Allied governments, and commercial markets

MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rilian, a provider of AI-native cybersecurity and defense systems integration capabilities, today announced that it has raised $17.5 million in seed and seed extension funding. The round was led by 8VC, First In, and Tamarack Global, with participation from 8090 Industries, Liquid 2 Ventures, Perot Jain, and Protego Ventures. The round will fuel Rilian’s expansion across the United States, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and other Allied nations, including go-to-market efforts, engineering talent acquisition, and research and development in agentic AI-powered cyber and defense technology solutions for commercial markets and nation‑scale environments.

Operation Epic Fury and the war in Ukraine illustrate how AI-enabled systems act as decisive force multipliers in hybrid conflicts, blending kinetic strikes with cyber operations targeting governments, the private sector and critical infrastructure alongside electronic warfare, information operations, and proxy forces, creating dense data environments that exceed human processing capacity alone. Adversaries empowered by AI act at machine speed while corporate and government security teams are often constrained by human inefficiency and technological latency in detection and response. But now, defenders can leverage AI as a force multiplier by expanding the effective capacity for analytic detection, countermeasures, and targeting through automation. They can enable faster, more precise cross-domain responses than adversaries can match, allowing defenders to generate disproportionate effects in cyberspace, the electromagnetic spectrum, and the physical domain.

Founded by leading AI security and defense operators, Christian Schnedler, Nick Pompeo, and Dan Fischer, Rilian developed its marquee agentic security orchestration platform, Caspian, to provide a curated arsenal of best-in-class cyber and defense technology capabilities, autonomous delivery, and a single command layer across organizations’ stacks and toolsets. The AI-native platform allows governments, the private sector, and critical infrastructure operators to rapidly access, securely deploy, and intelligently automate new security capabilities across private or sovereign cloud, on‑premise, air‑gapped, and compliance-constrained environments. Its pre-trained AI agents are capable of amplifying every analyst’s productivity through automation, learning from and anticipating adversaries’ attacks, capturing institutional knowledge, and flattening the learning curves related to new capabilities and new staff onboarding.

“For many national security organizations, the challenge of executing their mission is not a lack of budget or technology; it is the effective utilization of technical capabilities with limited skilled manpower,” said Christian Schnedler, CEO and Co-Founder of Rilian. “Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv, Northern Virginia, and other innovation hubs regularly produce impactful capabilities. Unfortunately, these take years to scale within governments at home, let alone deploying to global conflict zones where defenders need them most. Rilian was built to turn security into an execution success, not a procurement and human staffing problem.”

Global cybersecurity and risk management spending recently surpassed $200bn annually, according to Gartner, with continued growth expected. The global government and public‑sector cybersecurity market will grow from roughly $45–50 billion in 2025 to more than $70 billion by 2030 as the U.S., NATO allies, and partner governments harden critical infrastructure and adopt zero‑trust and sovereign cloud architectures, according to industry research.

Schnedler continued, “This funding accelerates our mission to ensure that the U.S. government, its Allies and critical infrastructure providers globally can access and operationalize the most advanced security capabilities through the power of agentic AI – with the speed, trust, and compliance their missions demand.”

Momentum Across the U.S. and Allied Nations

Rilian's traction underscores the urgency of the problem it solves. In July 2025, the company signed a landmark contract with the UAE Cybersecurity Council, the country's national cybersecurity powerhouse, to secure its critical infrastructure. Under the agreement, the UAE's National Security Operations Center (NSOC) is implementing Caspian to integrate, operate, and automate cybersecurity solutions across operational technology (OT) environments, with dedicated AI agents developed and trained to assess risks and respond to threats autonomously at the national level. The project will leverage advanced technologies from prominent partners within the UAE, the U.S., and global allies.

The company has also forged strategic partnerships with leading cyber and defense technology providers, hyperscalers, and foundational AI large language model developers, including SentinelOne, Censys, and SimSpace.

Investor Perspectives

“Rilian is redefining how sovereign organizations access and operationalize advanced cyber and defense capabilities. They sit at the intersection of AI, national security, and critical infrastructure; exactly where the stakes are highest and the legacy playbook is failing. We believe Rilian’s platform approach, and its ability to work alongside the best innovators in the ecosystem, positions the company to become foundational infrastructure for modern sovereign defense,” said Alex Moore, Partner at 8VC.

"Rilian has identified and is executing on one of the most critical unsolved problems in national security: the gap between the world's best cyber and defense technologies and the governments and enterprises that need them. Caspian isn't just a product. It's tomorrow’s infrastructure. Infrastructure that gets smarter with every deployment is exactly the kind of compounding, category-defining advantage that transforms how an industry operates,” said Renny McPherson, Managing Partner at First In.

“Agentic AI will define the next generation of mission systems. Rilian is building the connective tissue that enables governments to integrate advanced cyber and defense technologies into real operations at national scale. The team’s deep understanding of how programs are actually fielded — across air‑gapped and contested environments — is exactly what is needed to turn AI from slideware into capabilities that protect lives,” said John McCormick, Founder and Managing Partner at Tamarack Global.

About Rilian Technologies

Rilian is an agentic systems integrator built for the AI-native era of security. Its platform, Caspian, gives defense and security teams a single command layer across their entire stack — pre-trained agents amplify every analyst, capture institutional knowledge, and deploy into air-gapped, sovereign, and compliance-restricted environments in days, not years. Founded by lifelong practitioners, Rilian's mission is to enhance global security by promoting cutting-edge cyber and defense capabilities among the U.S. and its Allies. For more information, visit www.rilian.com.