Exclusive: CrowdStrike's CTO is leaving to launch an AI-cyber fund
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CrowdStrike global CTO Elia Zaitsev is leaving the cybersecurity giant to launch Cognition, a new venture firm targeting a $170 million fund.
Why it matters: AI is creating new attack surfaces, and Cognition is betting the shift will produce a category-defining cybersecurity platform it can find and fund early.
State of play: Zaitsev is leaving CrowdStrike after 13 years to launch Cognition alongside Gur Talpaz and Tayler Sipperly.
- Talpaz and Sipperly worked in corporate development at CrowdStrike before launching their own early-stage fund, Brightmind.
- There, they helped architect what they said was the largest Series A exit in cyber history: SGNL, which they entered at $105 million and exited at $740 million.
- They see Zaitsev as their new fund's "superpower," Sipperly said, adding that "being able to offer" his expertise to founders is "deeply unique in the market."
Between the lines: Cognition's thesis is that agentic AI is a platform-reset moment for cyber.
- The three former CrowdStrikers behind the fund are specifically hunting for the rare technical team capable of building the next broad security platform.
- Cognition plans to lead or co-lead seed and Series A rounds, and expects to make three or four concentrated investments a year.
- Its model calls for average checks of $6 million at seed and $15 million at Series A.
What they're saying: "We have this new attack surface that's being brought on by AI and agents," Zaitsev told Axios.
- Zaitsev and his cofounders are looking for teams that can "keep up with the constantly changing adversarial threat landscape."
- "AI security didn't exist five years ago... But as the adoption of AI dramatically ramps up in the enterprise, it requires a new set of tools," Talpaz told Axios.
The bottom line: Cognition is betting AI will make cybersecurity harder to address and much more valuable.
