Spain-based Zepo Intelligence, a cybersecurity startup protecting organisations from AI-powered social engineering, has today announced the closing of a €12.8 million ($15 million) Seed investment round.
The round was backed by Kibo Ventures, eCAPITAL, and TIN Capital. The fresh capital will be used to scale its proprietary technology globally and expand its team, with a focus on data engineering and artificial intelligence roles.
“AI is the core of our platform. For engineers looking to develop their careers at the frontier of AI and cybersecurity, Zepo offers the ideal environment to build technology with global impact,” explained Enrique Holgado, CPTO and co-founder of Zepo.
Founded in 2021 by Antonio Muñoz and Enrique Holgado, Zepo Intelligence claims to be the first agentic social intelligence platform for workspace security. It enables organisations to simulate real-world, AI-driven social engineering attacks (deepfakes, voice calls, cross-platform messages, or personalised phishing), identify human vulnerabilities. It also provides metrics and training adapted to each employee’s behaviour, to empower team capabilities.
According to Zepo, the rise of generative AI has rendered traditional cybersecurity involving isolated training tools and email filters obsolete. Citing a World Economic Forum report, the company mentioned that since the launch of ChatGPT, social engineering attacks have surged by 1,200%, resulting in over $1 trillion (nearly €860 billion) in losses in 2024 alone.
Antonio Muñoz, CEO and co-founder of Zepo Intelligence, explained, “Artificial Intelligence has turned social engineering into one of the biggest challenges society faces today. As attackers have exploited generative AI and moved to multi-vector personalised attacks on employees, traditional cybersecurity – focused on isolated training tools and email filters – no longer provides the needed protection. Zepo responds to this gap by leading Agentic Social Intelligence for Workspace Security.
“The most serious security failures today don’t begin with systems. They begin with people. Organisations need defences that understand human behaviour in real time, not incident reports after the damage is done. Zepo’s platform goes beyond training and simulations by combining human risk management with live threat detection. In a world where employees can’t reliably spot deepfakes or AI-crafted manipulation, protection has to show up in the moment. Just before a message turns into a transfer, a credential leak, or a breach. The result is a unified, proactive layer that helps protect employees across the channels where modern work actually happens.”
Zepo Intelligence was founded in Southern Europe and currently has teams distributed across New York, Madrid, Tel Aviv, and Mexico City. The startup has reported 5x year-over-year revenue growth and plans to increase the team and expand operations in Europe and the US over the next 18 months. The company has also been recognised by Google as one of the 15 most innovative cybersecurity and AI startups globally.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/01/spains-zepo-intelligence-raises-e12-8-million-to-protect-workplaces-from-ai-powered-human-targeted-cyber-threats/
