Rilian Raises $17.5 Million in Seed Funding

Rilian has raised $17.5 million in seed and seed extension funding as it looks to grow its footprint in cyber and defense operations. The round was led by 8VC, First In, and Tamarack Global, with participation from 8090 Industries, Liquid 2 Ventures, Perot Jain, and Protego Ventures. The company said it will use the funding to expand in the U.S., Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and other allied markets, while also investing in hiring and research around agentic AI for security and defense use cases.

The company is building around a problem that is getting harder to ignore. Security and defense teams are dealing with larger volumes of data, faster-moving threats, and more operational complexity than human teams can easily manage on their own. Rilian is making the case that agentic AI can help close that gap by automating parts of detection, analysis, and response, especially in environments where skilled personnel are limited and speed matters.

Its main platform, Caspian, is designed to give government and commercial organizations a way to deploy and manage security capabilities across different environments, including sovereign cloud, on-premises systems, air-gapped infrastructure, and other tightly controlled settings. That matters because many defense and critical infrastructure organizations cannot simply plug in new tools the way commercial companies often can. The opportunity for Rilian is in helping those customers adopt newer capabilities without adding more operational friction.

Rilian is also pointing to early traction. The company said it signed a contract in July 2025 with the UAE Cybersecurity Council focused on protecting critical infrastructure, and it has formed partnerships with SentinelOne, Censys, and SimSpace. The funding reflects continued investor interest in startups working at the intersection of AI, cyber operations, and national security. It also says something about where this market is heading: buyers are looking beyond standalone AI features and paying more attention to platforms that can help put AI to work inside real operational environments.