Daylight Security secures $7M Seed funding for AI-human hybrid cyber defense

Israeli startup Daylight Security emerged from stealth on Tuesday with $7 million in Seed funding, aiming to combine artificial intelligence with human analysts in managed security services. The round was led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from Maple VC and notable Israeli angel investors, including Torq co-founders Ofer Smadari, Leonid Belkind, and Eldad Livni; Cyera co-founders Tamar Bar-Ilan and Yotam Segev; and EON founder Ofir Ehrlich.

The Hybrid MDR Model

Daylight Security's pitch centers on addressing the growing complexity of cyber threats by speeding up detection and response. Many organizations lack the resources to build large in-house security teams, and Daylight's hybrid MDR model uses AI agents for data analysis and initial investigation, while human analysts interpret and act on alerts. This approach aims to reduce response times and alleviate the burden on internal security teams.

Market Context

Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services are a fast-growing segment of the cybersecurity market, with projections suggesting the global MDR sector will exceed $15 billion by the end of the decade. Businesses are increasingly outsourcing parts of their threat monitoring and incident response.

However, traditional MDR providers have faced criticism for relying heavily on manual processes and generating too many false positives, which waste time and resources. Daylight's founders, Hagai Shapira and Eldad Rudich—both veterans of Israel’s intelligence community and former early employees at Torq—aim to address this gap by leveraging AI more actively while retaining human judgment for final decisions.

Current Traction and Future Plans

Daylight Security claims its service is already in use by clients in finance and technology, though it has not disclosed specific names. The company currently employs about 20 people and plans to hire more engineers and sales staff in the coming months.

Industry Trends

Daylight joins a wave of new companies integrating AI deeper into cybersecurity tasks, as attackers also adopt automated tools. This trend highlights the escalating in cyber defense.