Founded by former Airbnb engineer, Teleskope aims to redefine data protection with agile AI models as cyber threats escalate, attracting major venture investment.
New York-based cybersecurity startup Teleskope has raised $25 million in Series A funding as it seeks to provide companies with smarter tools to protect their increasingly vast stores of sensitive data in the age of artificial intelligence.
The funding round was led by venture capital firm M13, with participation from Primary Venture Partners and Lerer Hippeau, both of which backed the company in earlier rounds. The latest raise brings Teleskope’s total funding to more than $32 million.
Founded by former Airbnb security engineer Elizabeth Nammour, Teleskope is positioning itself as a key player in the fast-evolving arena of data privacy and security. The company’s core offering is an AI-powered platform capable of locating sensitive information across a company’s digital infrastructure and taking direct action to secure or delete it, depending on the client’s policies.
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Nammour’s idea for Teleskope was born during her time at Airbnb, where she led efforts to manage and safeguard massive pools of personal data. Her team developed internal tools that used early versions of large language models (LLMs) to automate privacy controls—a system she later realized had value beyond Airbnb’s walls.
“Only a small percentage of companies have the resources to build what we built at Airbnb,” Nammour said. “I wanted to make it accessible for everyone else.”
What sets Teleskope apart, according to Nammour, is its use of multiple smaller, fine-tuned AI models rather than a single, monolithic LLM. This allows for faster, more accurate detection of sensitive data—whether in code repositories, cloud storage, or communication platforms like Slack and Google Drive.
For Karl Alomar, managing partner at M13, the company’s real innovation lies in its “agentic” approach—enabling organizations not just to identify risky data exposure, but to take automated action to remediate it.
“The solution Lizzy went after was if we’re going to give you all this information, let’s also give you the ability to solve it,” Alomar said. “That totally changes the paradigm of this category.”
Teleskope currently has 23 customers and claims to have converted 85% of its software pilots into paid contracts. With 29 employees and rapid year-over-year growth of 600%, Nammour says the company plans to scale aggressively to meet demand in an era of fast-growing cyberthreats fueled by widespread AI adoption.
Africa Daily News, New York
