Lightspeed Venture Partners Invests $6.5 Mn in P0 for AI-based Security Platform

The Silicon Valley-based investor Lightspeed Venture Partners has contributed $6.5 million to the seed funding round of AI-based security startup P0.

P0 was founded by Kunal Agarwal and Prakash Sanker with the goal of securing APIs to eradicate data exploits. The startup hopes to market itself as a single platform that integrates threat protection, access control, and cataloging for all of the APIs that businesses use.

P0 functions as a developer's assistant by using large language models (LLMs) to identify security and safety issues in software. The platform works with the developer as they write the code, as opposed to only reviewing it after it's finished. It thoroughly examines the entire code to identify any possible issues or weaknesses. Next, it uses unique inputs that it generates in accordance with the code's context to test the code.

Over the past year, LightSpeed—whose portfolio companies include unicorns like OYO, ShareChat, and BYJU’S—has been working in stealth mode with Sanker and Agarwal. Their attention has been on applying a thorough LLM-first methodology to address code and API security issues.