UCD Spin-out Raises $2.5 million in Pre-Seed Funding to Scale Breakthrough Encryption Platform for AI Security

- Mirror Security has signed a multi-million-dollar strategic partnership with G42’s Inception AI to secure next-generation AI ecosystems

(opens in a new window)Mirror Security, a research-driven cybersecurity company which spun out of University College Dublin (UCD) with the support of NovaUCD, today announced that it has raised $2.5 million (€2.15 million) in pre-seed funding to scale its breakthrough encryption platform for AI security.

The funding round was led by (opens in a new window)Sure Valley Ventures (SVV) and (opens in a new window)Atlantic Bridge, with support from strategic angel investors.

The funding will be used by the company to expand engineering and AI security teams in Ireland, the US, and India, accelerate product development in encrypted inferencing and secure fine-tuning, and drive immediate expansion into US enterprise markets.

Mirror Security is addressing one of the most urgent problems in enterprise AI adoption, the lack of reliable data confidentiality in model training and inference. As organisations integrate AI into their operations, the risk of exposing proprietary data during AI processing has surged. Mirror solves this through its revolutionary Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) technology, VectaX, which allows AI systems to process sensitive data while keeping it completely encrypted.

The company also announced today a multi-million-dollar strategic agreement with (opens in a new window)Inception AI, a G42 company and leading innovator of agentic AI solutions. Under the partnership, Mirror Security will deploy its full AI security stack across Inception’s enterprise and government ecosystem, enabling secure, scalable AI adoption globally. Mirror has also forged strategic partnerships with Intel, MongoDB, Qdrant, SiSys AI & Accops.

Founded by Pankaj Thapa and Dr Aditya Narayana K, a global expert in AI Security, Mirror Security combines world-class academic research with enterprise-grade execution, and its architecture is IP-rich and built for real-world enterprise workloads.

Dr Narayana K completed his PhD thesis at the UCD School of Computer Science under the supervision of Associate Professor Nhien-An Le-Khac.

Pankaj Thapa, Co-Founder and CEO, Mirror Security, said, “AI is transforming productivity and reshaping industries, but unsecured data flows pose an urgent risk that threatens to stall adoption. With VectaX, we replace policy-based trust with cryptographic proof, ensuring that sensitive information remains encrypted even during computation. Our mission is bigger than protecting data, we are building the trust layer for the AI economy.”

He added, “Just as the internet required a secure foundation to scale, AI now demands a new security paradigm. Mirror Security is pioneering that paradigm, enabling enterprises and governments to innovate confidently, knowing their data, strategies, and sovereignty are protected by design. We believe this is the cornerstone for AI’s next decade of growth.”

Barry Downes, Managing Partner, Sure Valley Ventures, said, “Mirror Security is building the encryption layer for AI, setting a new standard for how data is protected across the AI ecosystem. Its technology enables the secure processing of encrypted data, creating a foundation for the next generation of enterprise AI. We look forward to supporting the Mirror team as they scale this breakthrough technology globally.”

Weili Wang, Investor at Atlantic Bridge said, “Data security remains one of the most significant hurdles to AI adoption, with organizations concerned about exposing proprietary information during model training and inference. Mirror Security’s experienced team and differentiated FHE technology provide a unique solution for secure AI deployment without compromise. We are delighted to partner with the team and support this mission through our global network of cybersecurity and AI leaders.”

ENDS

2 December 2025

For further information contact Micéal Whelan, Communications and Media Relations Manager, NovaUCD, UCD Research and Innovation, e: (opens in a new window)miceal.whelan@ucd.ie.

Editors Notes

Mirror Security, spun out of University College Dublin, is the global pioneer in GenAI-native security. Its integrated “Security of AI” platform delivers the industry’s most complete protection suite:

• AgentIQ: full-spectrum agentic security for single-task executors to complex multi-agent swarms
• DiscoveR: automated red teaming to continuously probe and harden AI systems
• VectaX: the world’s first production-ready fully homomorphic encryption engine optimized for AI workloads

With operations in Ireland, the USA, and India, Mirror Security is setting the unbreakable global standard for AI data protection and GenAI security. For more information, please visit (opens in a new window)www.mirrorsecurity.io

Sure Valley Ventures (SVV) is a specialist AI VC firm that since 2017 has invested in high potential AI software companies across the UK and Ireland. Former founders turned investors, they bring decades of entrepreneurial experience to bear on finding the very best founders to partner with and invest in. (opens in a new window)https://www.svv.ai/

Atlantic Bridge is a global deep technology investment firm established in 2004 founded by successful entrepreneurs and executives. The Firm has €1.4B under management and has invested in over 120 deep tech companies from seed to growth stage. Atlantic Bridge supports portfolio companies scale internationally through its global networks and expert investors located across offices in Dublin, London, Palo Alto, Paris and Munich. (opens in a new window)https://www.abven.com/

Inception, a G42 company, is the region’s leading innovator of AI-powered domain-specific and industry-agnostic products. Within the G42 ecosystem, Inception functions as the core intelligence layer transforming data and compute infrastructure into real-world, applied AI solutions. (opens in a new window)https://inceptionai.ai/