At EQT, we have the privilege of working closely with cybersecurity professionals across industries and geographies. Over the past year, one theme has come up repeatedly in conversations with CISOs: Security Operations Centres (SOCs) are under extreme pressure. Just three to five years ago the average enterprise saw only 30 percent of what was happening. The rise of generative AI, increasing threat complexity, and alert overload is pushing SOC teams to the limit. There’s a critical need for new tools that can go beyond incremental improvements – something truly transformative.

Today, I’m thrilled to announce EQT Ventures’ investment in Qevlar AI, a next-generation platform that automates threat investigation and radically enhances SOC productivity. We’re proud to double down on our conviction following the initial round in November 2023, and to lead Qevlar AI’s $14M raise alongside Forgepoint Capital International and world-class operators from Datadog, DeepMind, Dataiku, and more.

Qevlar is building a new paradigm for security operations – one that replaces reactive alert factories with proactive, AI-powered threat hunters. Their platform doesn't just support analysts; it acts as an autonomous Level 1 team member, conducting full investigations in seconds, without the need for prebuilt playbooks. The results are extraordinary: 50% reduction in analyst time, 99.8% classification accuracy, and hours of productivity reclaimed daily.

When I met the founders Ahmed and Hamza, I was struck by their energy, technical depth, and relentless customer obsession. The meeting was supposed to be 30 minutes; we ended up going long just to see more of the terminal-based demo. Their vision clicked immediately: not another SIEM wrapper or dashboard UX, but a true AI agent to solve a hard, high-value problem. 

The journey behind Qevlar is equally inspiring. From a serendipitous meeting in student housing to a Huawei hackathon win, Ahmed and Hamza spent years sharpening their skills and deepening their understanding of cybersecurity and AI before launching Qevlar in 2023. That patience shows in the product, the team, and the speed at which they've moved.

Our excitement hasn’t changed:

• The team: Ambitious, customer-obsessed, highly technical, and deeply driven.

• The timing: Generative AI has educated the market on new possibilities that XSOAR options failed to deliver -just as SOC analysts face a surge in alerts. Qevlar is launching at the right moment.

• The approach: While incumbents use LLMs for interfaces, Qevlar focuses on full-stack automation—acting as a core team member, not just another tool.

• The agent stack: Building agents combining LLM and state machines is a state of the art way to build dependable automation in a production, cyber related environment.

They’ve already landed top-tier customers in EMEA, are part of Meta and Hugging Face's AI program at Station F, and are reducing critical alert response times by 30%. The market is ready, and so is Qevlar.

We're thrilled to back them one more time, and to re-new our trust in them. 

If you’re building in the cybersecurity or AI space, I’d love to hear from you: julien.hobeika@eqtventures.com

And if you’re looking to join one of the most exciting teams in cyber today, check out Qevlar’s open roles.

Let’s go.