# Horizon3 raises $250 million at $2 billion valuation for AI-powered penetration testing

> Horizon3 has raised a $250 million Series E, co-led by NightDragon and NEA with seven new strategic investors including SAIC, at a valuation north of $2 billion. That is roughly a tripling from its $650 million Series D just fourteen months earlier, a sharp markup in a market that has otherwise cooled on many startups. The company sells AI-driven continuous penetration testing through its NodeZero platform, which it says has run more than 310,000 production security tests without causing disruptions. The pitch is autonomous, always-on offense. Instead of an annual manual pentest, software constantly probes your systems the way an attacker would. The growth numbers help explain the valuation, with 120% year-over-year ARR growth and more than 7,000 organizations protected, including four of the Fortune 10. The timing is not subtle either. As AI supercharges both attackers and defenders, and after a run of incidents involving autonomous agents finding real vulnerabilities, demand for automated, continuous security testing is clearly one of the areas where enterprise budgets are still opening up.

_Section: [AI Funding Tracker](https://www.wortins.com/funding) · Source: TechCrunch · Published Thursday, August 6, 2026_

## Wortins' read

Horizon3 has raised a $250 million Series E, co-led by NightDragon and NEA with seven new strategic investors including SAIC, at a valuation north of $2 billion. That is roughly a tripling from its $650 million Series D just fourteen months earlier, a sharp markup in a market that has otherwise cooled on many startups. The company sells AI-driven continuous penetration testing through its NodeZero platform, which it says has run more than 310,000 production security tests without causing disruptions. The pitch is autonomous, always-on offense. Instead of an annual manual pentest, software constantly probes your systems the way an attacker would. The growth numbers help explain the valuation, with 120% year-over-year ARR growth and more than 7,000 organizations protected, including four of the Fortune 10. The timing is not subtle either. As AI supercharges both attackers and defenders, and after a run of incidents involving autonomous agents finding real vulnerabilities, demand for automated, continuous security testing is clearly one of the areas where enterprise budgets are still opening up.

## Source

[Read the full story at TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/03/horizon3-hits-2-billion-valuation-with-250m-series-e-as-ai-threats-escalate/)

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