AI Cybersecurity Startup Neural Defend Raises $600K in Pre-Seed Round

Neural Defend, an AI-driven cybersecurity startup, has raised over $600K in a Pre-seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures (IPV). The round also saw participation from MIT SBXI (Boston-based), Techstars San Francisco, and Soonicorn Ventures.

The capital will be used to enhance its agentic AI capabilities for real-time, multimodal deepfake detection, further advancing its R&D efforts and product development.

Founded in 2024 by Piyush Verma, Sivashankar Selvarajan, and Sumit Singh, Neural Defend operates in India and San Francisco, USA. The company focuses on deepfake detection and cybersecurity innovation, leveraging AI agentic technology to offer scalable and resilient solutions

Piyush Verma, a two-time founder and former researcher at MIT, Harvard, IBM R&D has built impact-driven ventures with Fortune 500 Clients in the past.


Sivashankar Selvarajan, an IIT, IIM graduate and seasoned AI and cybersecurity expert, holds two patents in Face Anti-Spoof Detection and has won the Intel Edge AI Award.

Sumit Singh has managed data pipelines worth over $200 billion, while working with major clients like INVESCO through Publicis Sapient. Neural Defend has also been selected into the prestigious Techstars accelerator in San Francisco.

“Neural Defend’s AI-driven approach to real-time detection perfectly aligns with today’s urgent need for robust cybersecurity and digital identity protection. At IPV, we back companies that solve critical challenges with scalable business models,” said Vikram Ramasubramanian, Partner & CIO, Inflection Point Ventures.


Currently at the pre-revenue stage, Neural Defend is scaling its operations by engaging with global enterprises, fintech companies and financial institutions for product validation and market expansion. With the rise of deepfake threats across industries, the company is well-positioned to drive widespread adoption of its solutions.

"Our goal is to protect real identities against digital deception through innovative AI agentic technology," said Piyush Verma, CEO of Neural Defend.- TWL Bureau