Fleuret AI, a Paris-based cybersecurity startup, has raised €4 million, about $4.7 million, in a pre-seed round led by RAISE Ventures. Auriga Cyber Ventures, Wind and Better Angle also invested, along with business angels from the cybersecurity sector.

The company is building an agentic AI platform that automates penetration testing, the practice of attacking a company's own systems to find weaknesses before criminals do.

What Fleuret AI Does

Traditional penetration tests are usually performed by outside specialists on a set schedule, often once or twice a year. The result is a snapshot. Software changes weekly, and a vulnerability introduced the day after an audit can sit undiscovered for months.

Fleuret AI wants to turn that periodic exercise into a continuous process. Its platform covers five steps: mapping the systems a company exposes to the internet, identifying vulnerabilities, demonstrating that those vulnerabilities can actually be exploited, supporting the fix, and then re-testing to confirm the fix worked. Two AI agents, named Emile and Champollion, do the exploring, working through applications, APIs and infrastructure to find and test weak points.

The platform also prioritizes findings and connects with the tools security teams already use, so that results reach the people responsible for fixing them.

The Founders and the Sovereignty Angle

Fleuret AI was founded by CEO Yanis Grigy and CTO Augustin Ponsin. Grigy has said the goal is not simply to automate penetration testing in its current form, but to build an offensive security layer that keeps companies protected throughout the year.

The startup runs on European infrastructure, a deliberate choice for customers with data sovereignty requirements. Tech Funding News reported that the platform is hosted with French cloud provider Scaleway. For European banks, public agencies and critical infrastructure operators, where sensitive security data is stored can decide whether a vendor is considered at all.

How the Money Will Be Used

The funding will be used to hire across AI, software development and offensive cybersecurity, and to speed up development of the platform for large enterprise environments.

Why It Matters

Automated offensive security has become one of the busiest corners of cybersecurity investing. AI agents can now chain together the steps of an attack in ways that once required a skilled human tester, and that capability is available to attackers as well as defenders. Companies face pressure to test their defenses far more often than a yearly audit allows, and skilled penetration testers remain scarce and expensive.

A $4.7 million pre-seed is a sizable first round by European standards, and it reflects how much investor interest the category is drawing. Fleuret AI's bet is that a European-hosted product, built for continuous testing from the start, can win customers who are wary of sending details of their vulnerabilities to providers outside the region.

Source

Tech.eu — "Fleuret AI raises €4M to advance AI-powered offensive cybersecurity in Europe"