The Dawn of a New Cybersecurity Era
Imagine a world where cybersecurity is not an afterthought, not bolted on in response to threats, but woven into every fiber of a system from its very first line of code. This is the world Dawnguard is building—one where intelligent, resilient security is native, automated, and continuous.
Fresh from stealth, Dawnguard has captured the industry’s attention with its $3 million pre-seed funding triumph, spearheaded by 9900 Capital with participation from prominent angels including scale-up leaders, CIOs, and CISOs. But what makes Dawnguard’s mission truly stand out is its determination to erase the age-old distinction between system design and system security, essentially rewriting the DNA of how we build and defend digital infrastructure
Fixing a Broken Model
For decades, security was handled reactively: a checkbox on a launch roadmap, often disconnected from the rapid realities of digital development. Dawnguard’s founders, including CEO Mahdi Abdulrazak and CTO Kim van Lavieren, witnessed the consequences of this fractured approach firsthand in their careers with industry giants. Instead of accepting a cycle of endless patching and post-factum fixes, they set out to embed security at the core—from the earliest design phase, and throughout the software lifecycle
A Platform Built for Collaboration and Automation
At Dawnguard’s core is a holistic automation platform—engineered for cloud-native environments. It’s not another tool to scan deployments or perform rote reviews. Instead, Dawnguard provides a collaborative canvas for security architects, DevOps, and cloud teams to design, validate, and launch infrastructure with security baked in.
artificial intelligence (AI) and ML-powered engines analyze diagrams, documentation, and even existing code, flagging issues before they ever reach production. This proactive approach enables rapid iteration and long-term compliance, as well as automatic generation of production-ready Infrastructure as Code (IaC) from validated designs. And it doesn’t stop there—Dawnguard persistently enforces security posture after deployment, helping organizations withstand evolving threats without drifting from their security vision.
Why This Matters in the Age of AI
As software becomes more dynamic and as AI-generated code accelerates deployment cycles, the risk of misaligned or outdated security only grows. Dawnguard aims to bridge this gap by enabling organizations to validate intent against reality. Their approach is not just to patch vulnerabilities, but to address root causes—design flaws that, if left unchecked, AI-driven attackers can exploit.
Industry insiders and investors have called Dawnguard’s mission both “bold” and “necessary.” With plans to expand the platform’s capabilities for even more dynamic and generative AI environments, Dawnguard is positioning itself at the forefront of cybersecurity’s most critical frontier: securing not just today’s systems, but the rapidly evolving infrastructure of tomorrow.
A Story of Vision and Urgency
The Dawnguard journey is grounded in a sense of urgency. As one of their investors noted, “Security can’t be stuck in the past.” As the pace of software innovation sprints forward, cyber defenders must lead the evolution, not lag behind it. By finally integrating security into the design phase, Dawnguard is empowering teams to move quickly—but safely—through this age of digital transformation.
Dawnguard’s launch signals a fundamental shift—from bolted-on security to architecture that’s secure by design. As organizations adopt this approach, they’re not just building for today; they’re hardwiring trust, resilience, and intelligence into the next generation of digital infrastructure.
