Upwind is expanding its AI security capabilities through an acquisition that gives the cybersecurity company a new research and engineering operation dedicated to emerging AI threats. The company has acquired AI security startup Aegis and launched Upwind AI Security Labs, as first reported by Axios.
The deal brings Aegis founders Omri Limor and Saar Ankonina into Upwind, where they will lead the new initiative. The labs will combine Aegis’s development work with Upwind’s existing runtime platform and focus on turning AI security research into enterprise-grade capabilities.
Rather than limiting the new initiative to a single security product, Upwind says the labs will work across scanning, attack detection and broader AI security capabilities as new risks emerge.
A Different Kind of Expansion
The acquisition follows a relationship that initially centered on collaboration rather than an immediate transaction. Aegis approached Upwind about a strategic partnership and investment, and the companies subsequently worked together for several months.
That process ultimately led to the acquisition and the creation of AI Security Labs inside Upwind. The new structure gives Aegis’s team access to Upwind’s existing platform while giving Upwind a dedicated group focused on emerging AI security challenges.
The founders bring backgrounds in offensive cybersecurity from 8200, where Limor and Ankonina began their careers together. They later worked together in a commander-subordinate relationship before becoming peers, eventually leaving the unit to build Aegis.
Aegis focused on security problems emerging from AI infrastructure, including autonomous exploitation pipelines and large-scale credential harvesting. The company was created around the premise that AI-generated attacks could collapse traditional skill gaps associated with sophisticated cyber operations.
What the Labs Will Study
The new labs will concentrate on several parts of the AI security landscape, including agents, skills and plugins. As enterprises adopt AI-powered workflows, those systems can interact with applications, access information and execute tasks, while additional components can expand their functionality.
That combination creates new areas for security research. Upwind says the labs will investigate the associated risks and develop capabilities intended to identify and address them.
Secret scanning will be another central focus. The company cited industry findings involving compromised API keys and session tokens being harvested at scale and said the labs will emphasize scanning secrets both in transit and at rest.
“AI security is developing extremely quickly, and by acquiring Aegis and bringing Omri and Saar on board, we are building a team that can move just as quickly,” said Amiram Shachar, CEO and Co-Founder at Upwind. “The Aegis team brings a deep understanding of the challenges around securing agents, skills, and plugins, and by combining that expertise with Upwind’s existing platform, we can move from research to real-world security capabilities much faster.”
Why the Founders Joined Upwind
For Limor and Ankonina, the acquisition provides a different operating environment from the one they had while building Aegis independently. Limor said working with Upwind made it clear that the team could accelerate its work by joining the company.
“We initially built Aegis as a startup to tackle the missing security layer around AI agents, skills and plugins,” said Omri Limor, Co-Founder of Aegis. “After spending several months working together with Upwind, it became clear that joining forces through an acquisition and establishing AI Security Labs inside Upwind would allow us to move much faster and combine our technology with the capabilities Upwind has already built.”
Ankonina said the integration also gives the technology a direct route to scale.
“Integrating our technology directly into Upwind’s platform gives us an immediate path to scale,” added Saar Ankonina, Co-Founder of Aegis. “The establishment of AI Security Labs provides the ideal environment to accelerate research and protect enterprise AI workflows.”
Building the Team Behind the Labs
The initiative begins with 12 developers and researchers from Aegis and Upwind. The company expects the team to reach approximately 25 people within three months and says it could eventually grow to 35 as the initiative continues to develop.
The planned expansion is intended to support more research while increasing the capacity to turn that work into new AI security capabilities. Shachar described the labs as a significant research and engineering capability being built within Upwind.
“We built AI Security Labs on the foundation of the Aegis acquisition with the ambition to create a significant research and engineering capability within Upwind,” said Shachar. “We expect the team to grow from 12 people today to 25 and potentially 35 in the coming months, allowing us to expand our research and accelerate the development of new AI security capabilities.”
The acquisition ultimately gives Upwind a larger internal team focused on the changing security requirements around AI. Its stated goal is to shorten the path from identifying new attack techniques to developing practical defenses, while keeping that work connected to the company’s broader cloud and AI security platform.
“As AI transforms both the threat landscape and the speed of modern cyber operations, this is the ideal moment to build, innovate, and lead in cloud and AI security,” added Shachar. “With AI Security Labs, Upwind is reinforcing its mission to protect modern enterprise infrastructure and ensure organizations can safely embrace the next era of AI innovation.”
