Israel’s data loss prevention startup MIND emerges from stealth with $11M in funding to combat data leaks

After a year of working under wraps with select companies, Israel-based data loss prevention startup MIND has officially launched with $11 million in seed funding to tackle data leak risks. The funding round was led by YL Ventures, joined by Adobe, ADT, Crowdstrike, and FireEye.

MIND’s platform, which uses AI and automation to detect and prevent data leaks instantly, highlights the growing urgency around data protection. The volume of data globally reached 64.2 zettabytes in 2020, and it’s projected to grow more than tenfold by 2030—a trend that underscores the rising demand for secure data management.

Alongside the funding, MIND also unveiled its AI-driven DLP platform, combining smart automation to deliver what it describes as the first comprehensive solution of its kind. The platform helps organizations identify, detect, and prevent sensitive data leaks in real-time, enabling them to act at the speed of machine processes.

MIND was founded in 2023 by Eran Barak (CEO), Itai Schwartz (CTO), and Hod Bin Noon (VP of R&D), all former leaders in Israel’s elite 8200 military intelligence unit. MIND is based in the U.S., with research and development anchored in Israel.

Before MIND, Barak founded Hexadite, later acquired by Microsoft, while Schwartz was a key early employee at both security automation startup Torq and asset management firm Axonius. Bin Noon was the first employee at Dazz, specializing in real-time vulnerability detection and remediation. The co-founders bring decades of experience from Israel’s Military Intelligence Unit 8200 to the helm of MIND.

With data becoming more complex, diverse, and accessible, the risks of leaks have intensified. The rapid expansion of unstructured data—projected by Gartner to account for 90% of all new enterprise data—is a particular challenge. Sensitive information often embedded in these unstructured files includes credit card numbers, social security numbers, credentials, and more. Traditional data loss prevention (DLP) strategies have struggled to keep up, often lacking visibility, automation, and risk assessment capabilities.

“As billions of records get leaked every year, we recognize it as one of the major pain points for companies and a problem lacking a comprehensive and simplified data security solution for the era of AI,” Barak said.

Barak emphasized that MIND’s approach combines both data visibility and actionable prevention, covering sensitive data at rest, in motion, and in use.

“MIND enables organizations to mind what really matters by taking a new approach to data security that uniquely melds both the visibility of data risks and the actionability of stopping data leaks – holistically addressing sensitive data at rest, in motion, and in use. Our customers have dramatically reduced the resources needed to implement effective DLP programs that truly deliver on both security and compliance needs, leading to much greater efficiency and productivity.”