Cybersecurity startup Nullify, which makes use of synthetic intelligence (AI) to assist software program builders and safety groups detect and repair potential vulnerabilities in code because it’s being written, has raised $1.1 million in a pre-Seed spherical led by OIF Ventures. 

Former XM Cyber founding group Adi Ashkenazy and Zini Shahar, now operating the safety advisory agency Skylight Cyber, additionally backed Nullify alongside Blacknova Ventures and Cyrise, 

The preliminary capital might be used to scale Nullify, a cybersecurity bot that analyses the code inside present workflows to determine and repair any points. It not solely constantly detects, but in addition correlates and fixes safety points throughout an organization’s provide chain, codebase and cloud environments.

Nullify is already being utilized by a number of firms right here and abroad, with a public launch set for this week

Cofounders Shantanu Kulkarni, Tim Thacker and Tony Mao met whereas learning laptop science and software program engineering on the College of NSW.

Kulkarni, Nullify’s CEO, mentioned they went on to work in cloud safety roles at finance, insurance coverage and tech firms the place they sawn first hand the continued challenges round constructing safe software program with out slowing down the pace of growth.

He went on to develop the trade engagement courseCOMP9447 with Thacker. It’s a collaboration between UNSW Laptop Science and Engineering and Amazon Net Providers (AWS) the place college students are mentored by AWS safety engineers/options architects and construct a cloud safety undertaking.

They based Nullify with Mao in December final yr. 

“With builders immediately pushing code twice as quick, safety groups are struggling to safe software program  on the tempo it’s being constructed. Nullify is constructed for organisations to allow their builders, and never simply  safety groups, to personal the safety of the software program they construct,” Kulkarni mentioned.

“By leveraging each open-source instruments and generative AI, Nullify can detect, prioritise and  repair safety vulnerabilities for builders, saving them hours every week on safety work and permitting them to spend extra time constructing software program.” 

He’s now trying to develop the product suite with new applied sciences to satisfy the quickly  evolving wants of the cyber-security market. 

OIF’s Andrew Yeo, mentioned the coding cybersecurity startup is the first Australian firm to hitch the AI developer tooling arms race.  

“Nullify’s core worth lies in its skill to assist companies distribute safety possession throughout software program growth and safety groups with out compromising on the  pace of growth,” he mentioned.

“OIF is thrilled to assist Shan, Tim and Tony of their imaginative and prescient to turn into the AI  safety autopilot for all developer and safety groups as software program, AI and vulnerabilities proliferate globally.”

Skylight Cyber’s Adi Ashkenazy mentioned embedding safety testing into engineering processes has been expensive and time-consuming, typically on the expense of agility. Nullify gives a option to immediately allow  developer groups to personal safety at scale in a frictionless, consolidated and low-touch method.”

Kulkarni mentioned that following the broader launch of Nullify, they’ll be trying to raise a US seed Spherical and develop globally “to indicate that we will construct world class cybersecurity and AI firms from right here in Australia”.