Doppel, a social engineering defence platform, has been named to the 2026–2027 Fortune Cyber 60 list for the second year running. The list, produced with Fortune editors, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and AWS, recognises 60 venture-backed cybersecurity startups. Selection rests on financial performance, business operations, growth, and market research. The San Francisco company says AI is making phishing and similar attacks more sophisticated and easier to scale. Its agentic AI platform combines Digital Risk Protection, Human Risk Management, and Email Security. In 2026, Doppel expanded to Japan and Toronto, added Email Security, and passed 300 employees. "We're at an inflection point in cybersecurity," said co-founder and chief executive officer Kevin Tian.

Asymptote Labs raises $5.5M to track and control what AI agents do. Its free Beacon tool logs activity from Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and more than 20 other agent tools. October 20, 2026 - 4:17 pm New York startup Asymptote Labs has raised a $5.5M seed round led by Tower Research Ventures. It makes Beacon, a free open-source tool that records what AI agents do, and sells a paid platform that can block risky agent actions. The money will go on engineering, hiring and sales. Asymptote Labs, a New York startup that monitors what AI agents do inside companies, has raised $5.5M in seed funding, it said on Tuesday. Tower Research Ventures, the venture arm of trading firm Tower Research Capital, led the round. Lytical Ventures, 1984 Ventures and South Park Commons also took part. The company did not disclose its valuation. Asymptote's main product is Beacon, a free, open-source tool that records what AI agents do. It works with coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, and more than 20 others. It puts their activity, including prompts, commands and file edits, into one standard format. That gives security teams one place to see what different agents did, and on whose behalf. Asymptote's paid platform builds on Beacon and can block risky actions, such as data leaks, before they happen, the company said. "AI agents are becoming a new operating layer inside every company, but the infrastructure to understand and control them hasn't caught up," said Justin D'Souza, Asymptote's co-founder and chief executive. D'Souza and co-founder Shukan Shah previously worked as engineers at Doppel, a startup that fights social engineering attacks. Beacon launched in May, and the company says its GitHub page grew its stars by more than 460% in September. Asymptote said security teams already use its tools in production, but did not name customers. Tower's own security team is testing Beacon on its computers, the company said. Investors are betting that companies need new tools as agents take on real work. Straiker raised $64M in June to test and monitor AI agents. This month, researchers said a single prompt let them take over agents on Amazon's AgentCore, though AWS disputed the findings. Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

Doppel and San Francisco 49ers announce multi-year partnership. Sep 29, 2026, 09:00 ET Homegrown deal between the two Bay Area-based brands names Doppel the 49ers Official Social Engineering Defense Partner and brings AI-native defense to the franchise SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - The San Francisco 49ers and Doppel, the Frontier AI Social Engineering Defense (SED) platform, today announced a multi-year partnership naming Doppel the Official Social Engineering Defense Partner of the team. The agreement marks Doppel's first collaboration with an NFL franchise and will showcase the company across gameday promotions, in-stadium signage, social media content, and custom events. Doppel's frontier AI platform protects organizations from social engineering attacks, such as phishing, impersonation, deepfakes, and fraud. It unifies Digital Risk Protection, Email Security, and Human Risk Management on one Superintelligence Layer, enabling threats detected in one channel to inform defenses across the business. By detecting and connecting signals across channels, Doppel gives the 49ers organization a more complete view of social engineering campaigns and aids intervention before threats become reality. "The 49ers are one of the most iconic and legendary brands in sports, and we're proud to build on our relationship with them," said Kevin Tian, CEO and Co-Founder of Doppel. "Doppel was founded in the Bay Area, making this partnership a homecoming for us. We're thrilled to bring our brand to 49ers fans and help safeguard a franchise that means so much to this community. Defending an organization of this scale and visibility is exactly what Doppel was built to do." Throughout the partnership, Doppel will be featured at 49ers home games through digital and physical in-stadium signage. Additional collaborations will be anchored by Doppel's "Defend the Bay" campaign, a creative initiative connecting AI and technology with the brands' shared commitment to protecting staff, partners, and fans. "As one of the most recognizable sports brands in the world, protecting our organization and maintaining the trust we've built with our global fanbase is our utmost priority," said Costa Kladianos, 49ers EVP and Head of Technology. "Doppel is a Silicon Valley neighbor whose use of AI is changing the game. We chose them because we've seen their products in action and trust them to make us safer." "We built Doppel to give security teams complete visibility into how attacks develop across every medium," said Rahul Madduluri, CTO and Co-Founder of Doppel. "AI has made impersonation cheaper, faster, and more convincing to produce. Defending against it requires technology that dismantles malicious infrastructure and responds at machine speed. The 49ers have built their identity around that same disciplined approach to defense, which makes this relationship such a natural fit." Founded in San Francisco in 2022, Doppel's mission is to protect the world from social engineering attacks every day. The company has since grown its team and technology while maintaining a strong presence in the Bay Area, and today protects organizations around the world from AI-powered impersonation and fraud. About the San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers, owned by the York family, currently play in the NFC West division and have won five Super Bowl trophies, including Super Bowl XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXIV and XXIX. The franchise also has eight conference championships and 22 divisional championships and was the first major league professional sports team to be based in San Francisco 80 years ago. Please visit 49ers.com and follow the 49ers on Facebook and X @49ers. About Doppel Doppel is the Frontier AI Social Engineering Defense (SED) platform, protecting individuals and brands from AI-powered impersonation, phishing, fraud, and social engineering through three solutions unified on a shared intelligence layer. Digital Risk Protection (DRP) detects threats across multiple channels, links alerts into a real-time threat graph, and delivers AI-driven infrastructure disruption. Human Risk Management (HRM) turns those live threats into phishing simulation campaigns and next-generation security awareness training, measuring and reducing employee risk by user and team. Email Security adds inline protection, using a self-healing, agentic architecture that tunes detection policies, investigates threats, closes detection gaps, and uses the Doppel Threat Graph to stop inbox attacks and disrupt the infrastructure behind them. Together, they defend the entire social engineering attack chain, from infrastructure built before a target is acquired to the moment of compromise, advancing Doppel's mission to protect the world from social engineering, every day. SOURCE Doppel