Ballistic Ventures funding targets reached $490 million this week as the San Francisco venture capital firm filed regulatory paperwork to back early-stage cybersecurity startups. The group plans to invest in companies protecting businesses against automated attacks, splitting the capital across its third flagship fund and a companion investment vehicle.
Key points
- Ballistic Ventures submitted filings to raise $360 million for its third flagship fund and $130 million for Fund B.
- The firm previously raised a $300 million debut fund in 2022 and closed a second $360 million vehicle in 2024.
- AI-focused cybersecurity startups captured 72% of US venture deals in the sector through May 2026.
- Attackers increasingly deploy artificial intelligence to accelerate phishing campaigns and malware production.
The twin filings in San Francisco
The firm filed two Form D notifications with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 3 November 2026. TechCrunch first reported the submissions, which reveal the intended capital structure for the next vintage.
The primary vehicle, Ballistic Ventures Fund III, seeks to raise $360 million from institutional backers. That total matches the size of its previous flagship fund, which closed in 2024. A second submission shows the firm seeking another $130 million for Ballistic Ventures Fund B. Neither vehicle had recorded capital sales at the date of the regulatory filing.
Fund B mirrors an earlier arrangement. According to data from PitchBook, Ballistic raised approximately $130 million for a side vehicle called Fund A alongside its previous core pool. Companion funds of this type typically give managers capacity to write follow-on cheques for breakout companies without exhausting their primary fund reserves.
Founding team and portfolio track record
Ballistic began operations in late 2021 with an exclusive focus on early-stage security software. Ted Schlein, who spent over two decades as a partner at Kleiner Perkins, established the group alongside security industry operators.
The co-founding roster includes Barmak Meftah, the former president of AT&T Cybersecurity, and Roger Thornton, an entrepreneur who helped start Fortify Software and AlienVault. In 2022, the partnership announced its $300 million debut fund to back seed and Series A founders.
Several early bets generated commercial exits. Palo Alto Networks acquired portfolio company Talon Cyber Security to protect enterprise web browsers. Security infrastructure startup Pangea was bought by CrowdStrike to expand application protection services. Other active holdings in the Ballistic portfolio include Armadin, GetReal, Nudge Security and application security provider Oligo Security.
Peers in Silicon Valley note that Schlein’s long association with Kleiner Perkins gives Ballistic an established network among institutional limited partners. Its direct competitors include specialist funds such as Forgepoint Capital and Ten Eleven Ventures, as well as European investors like Auriga Cyber Ventures II, which recently raised capital for machine-learning security investments.
Venture appetite follows machine-learning threats
Venture investors poured $11.5 billion into US cybersecurity companies during 2025, according to a research report by JPMorgan Chase that analysed PitchBook records. That figure represented the highest annual total for the sector since 2022.
Capital allocation within the sector shifted sharply toward machine-learning tools. Companies with artificial intelligence capabilities made up roughly 72% of all US cybersecurity venture funding deals through May 2026. In 2019, those businesses represented just 36% of completed transactions.
The flood of private funding matches growing operational pressure inside corporate security operations centres. Threat actors have started combining autonomous agents to scan networks, generate deceptive lures and alter malicious code on the fly. Real-world incidents, including campaigns where an ARTEX AI framework automated attacks across hundreds of corporate targets, show how quickly offensive tools have scaled.
Enterprise software defenders face an expanding attack surface as employees connect autonomous tools to business systems. Large enterprises are deploying internal gateways to coordinate thousands of programmatic workers across corporate servers, creating fresh vulnerabilities around data leakage and credential theft.
What happens next
Corporate risk officers report that software attacks now develop at speeds human teams struggle to counter manually. In its annual Digital Defense Report published in October, Microsoft warned that criminal groups are applying machine learning to phishing, social engineering lures and software exploit assembly.
Microsoft researchers pointed out that while core intrusion tactics remain familiar, automation lets hostile groups conduct strikes faster and at far larger volumes. That change forces enterprise software buyers to purchase defences that rely on similar predictive systems.
Ballistic Ventures declined to comment on its fundraising timeline or initial closing dates. The general partners will now market the two new funds to institutional allocators before issuing initial capital calls.
