In a world where artificial intelligence is being used as much by attackers as defenders, one cybersecurity startup is stepping up to protect companies from a new breed of threats. Zepo Intelligence, a Spain-born security tech company, has just raised $15 million in a seed funding round to expand its AI-powered platform designed to make workplaces safer from social engineering attacks driven by generative AI.

The round was led by Kibo Ventures, with participation from eCAPITAL and TIN Capital. The fresh capital will go toward expanding Zepo’s team — particularly in data engineering and AI — and rolling out its technology more broadly across Europe and the U.S. over the next year and a half.

Why This Matters: AI Makes Social Engineering Worse

Social engineering — tricking people into revealing sensitive information or performing risky actions — has always been a cybersecurity weak spot. But with tools like deepfakes, synthetic voice calls, and highly tailored phishing messages, attackers are now creating convincing fake interactions that are hard even for trained employees to spot.

According to reports cited by Zepo, social engineering attacks have surged roughly 1,200% since ChatGPT hit the market, and related damages exceeded $1 trillion last year.

Traditional defenses like periodic employee training or email filters simply aren’t built to handle these dynamic, AI-enhanced threats. That’s where Zepo’s approach differs.

A Human-Centric Defense Layer

What sets Zepo apart is its focus on human risk — not just technology risk.

Rather than only blocking threats or sending canned tutorials, Zepo’s platform does three key things:

• Simulates real AI-powered attacks across email, messaging apps, and voice channels to expose weak points in employee behavior.
• Monitors digital workspaces in real time, detecting suspicious activity before it leads to a breach.
• Delivers tailored training and alerts based on actual risk patterns, helping teams learn from realistic scenarios.

Co-founder Antonio Muñoz explains that the company’s goal is to build an active protection layer that reacts just before a risky message becomes a costly mistake — like a wire transfer or credential leak. Traditional tools, he argues, were not designed for the age of AI.

Growing Faster Than Expected

Zepo isn’t just an idea. It claims 5x year-over-year revenue growth and already works with several global enterprises. Its tech has also drawn attention from major accelerators — including programs backed by Google, CrowdStrike, NVIDIA, and Amazon.

With the new funding, Zepo plans to hire aggressively in AI and data engineering, and expand operations across key tech markets like the U.S. and Europe.

As investors see it, the problem Zepo is addressing — AI-powered social engineering — isn’t going away anytime soon. “AI-driven attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and frequent,” said Javier Torremocha, co-founder and managing partner at Kibo Ventures. Tools like Zepo’s, he says, will be essential for companies to stay ahead of attackers.