Onit Security Secures $11 Million Seed Round, Eyes Critical Energy Infrastructure Protection with AI
In a significant development for the cybersecurity landscape, Israeli startup Onit Security has successfully closed an $11 million seed funding round. This substantial capital injection is earmarked to advance its pioneering approach to identifying and neutralizing cyber vulnerabilities through sophisticated AI agents. For investors keenly watching the oil and gas sector, this innovative solution offers a compelling proposition for enhancing the resilience of critical energy infrastructure against an escalating tide of digital threats.
Founded in Tel Aviv in early 2025 by a team of seasoned entrepreneurs, Onit Security emerges from a deep understanding of the vulnerabilities plaguing modern enterprises. The company’s very inception stems from a sobering firsthand experience of co-founder Ofer Amitai, whose previous firm, Portnox, fell victim to a cyberattack in late 2020. This breach, attributed to a hacking collective with clear ties to Iran, resulted in the theft of customer data. Amitai, who served as CEO of Portnox at the time, characterized the incident as not reliant on “super sophisticated attack” vectors, yet impactful enough to “leave scars.” This personal encounter underscores the urgent need for more robust, proactive defense mechanisms, a sentiment resonating profoundly within the energy sector, which faces similar geopolitical risks and constant probing from state-sponsored actors.
The Genesis of a Proactive Defense Strategy for Industrial Operations
The lessons learned from the Portnox incident proved pivotal for Amitai and his co-founders, Elad Ben Meir and Tom Winter. Their collective vision for Onit Security was to construct tools that empower organizations to preemptively detect and remediate the very type of vulnerabilities that led to the earlier breach. This philosophy is particularly pertinent for the oil and gas industry, where the convergence of IT and operational technology (OT) environments creates a vast and complex attack surface. Traditional security measures often struggle to keep pace with these intricate, constantly evolving digital ecosystems, leaving critical infrastructure assets exposed to potentially catastrophic disruptions.
Elad Ben Meir, now CEO of Onit, highlights the transformative potential of autonomous AI agents in this new cybersecurity paradigm. Drawing parallels to how AI tools like Anthropic’s Claude Code are revolutionizing software development and management, Ben Meir asserts that similar autonomous capabilities are poised to redefine cybersecurity. “Why not have agents that do the tasks that humans just don’t get to?” he queries, emphasizing the scalability and relentless nature of AI in covering the security gaps often overlooked by human teams. This innovative approach is gaining traction across the cybersecurity market, with a growing number of startups like Safe Security, Reco, and Bold deploying AI agents in diverse capacities to fortify organizational defenses.
AI Agents: A Paradigm Shift in Protecting Energy Assets
Onit’s proprietary “fleet” of AI agents is engineered to execute a variety of tasks autonomously, providing a continuous, vigilant layer of protection crucial for the integrity of oil and gas operations. These agents are designed to collect vital threat intelligence, decipher complex business contexts—such as identifying the ownership of internal assets—and propose concrete solutions to identified vulnerabilities. This comprehensive, always-on assessment capability offers a significant advantage for energy companies grappling with sprawling networks, legacy systems, and the imperative of maintaining uninterrupted operations.
For investors focused on the resilience of the energy supply chain, the implications are profound. Proactive vulnerability management powered by AI can significantly reduce the window of opportunity for attackers, mitigate the financial repercussions of breaches, and bolster regulatory compliance. In a sector where downtime can translate into billions in lost revenue and severe environmental impact, investing in preventative, intelligent security solutions becomes an economic imperative.
Maintaining Control: The “Human in the Middle” Imperative for OT Security
Despite the advanced autonomy of Onit’s AI agents, a critical aspect of their design emphasizes human oversight. Ben Meir firmly states that a human operator must always provide final authorization before the AI implements any proposed fix. This “human in the middle” approach reflects a pragmatic understanding of current market readiness and the inherent sensitivity of making changes to complex IT and OT environments, particularly in critical infrastructure sectors. “I think the market’s not quite ready yet for fully autonomous agents’ behavior,” Ben Meir acknowledges. This balanced strategy ensures that critical decisions remain under human control, providing an essential layer of assurance for complex industrial operations where unintended consequences from automated actions could be severe.
For oil and gas companies, this hybrid model is especially appealing. It allows them to leverage the efficiency and analytical power of AI without ceding complete control over highly sensitive operational systems. This thoughtful integration of artificial intelligence with human expertise is key to building trust and accelerating adoption within a conservative, risk-averse industry.
Strategic Market Focus and Robust Funding for Future Growth
Onit Security operates on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, offering a tiered subscription structure that allows clients to scale their deployment of AI agents based on evolving needs. Despite just emerging from stealth mode this week, the startup has already demonstrated significant market traction, securing approximately 15 Fortune 1000 customers. This early adoption by large enterprises underscores the immediate demand for Onit’s solutions within complex organizational structures.
Ben Meir emphasizes Onit’s strategic focus on larger corporations with “complex environments,” specifically citing financial institutions and manufacturers. This targeting aligns perfectly with the operational profile of major integrated oil and gas companies, which possess vast and intricate global networks, sophisticated industrial control systems, and a high reliance on uninterrupted digital operations. The seed funding round, led by prominent venture capital firms Hetz Ventures and Brightmind Partners, along with contributions from unnamed angel investors, signals strong investor confidence in Onit’s technology and market strategy.
Looking ahead, Onit plans to deploy the fresh capital to accelerate product development and amplify its go-to-market efforts. The company is actively targeting expansion into additional industries, further broadening its reach within the critical infrastructure landscape. For oil and gas investors, Onit Security represents an opportunity to back a forward-thinking cybersecurity innovator addressing some of the most pressing and complex threats facing the global energy sector today, promising enhanced security and operational continuity in an increasingly digital world.
