Ted Schlein’s Ballistic Ventures seeks $490M for new funds amid AI-driven cybersecurity boom

Ballistic Ventures, the cybersecurity-focused task superior steadfast co-founded by erstwhile Kleiner Perkins spouse Ted Schlein (pictured above, 2nd from the right), is seeking to rise $490 cardinal crossed 2 caller funds, TechCrunch has learned done regulatory filings.

The San Francisco-based VC steadfast filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week to raise $360 million for its 3rd flagship fund, matching the size of its erstwhile fund raised successful 2024, and another $130 million for a abstracted conveyance called Ballistic Ventures Fund B. Neither money had recorded immoderate income astatine the clip of filing.

The fundraising plans travel arsenic the increasing usage of artificial quality has raised concerns astir much blase cyberattacks. The emergence of AI agents has besides created caller opportunities for cybersecurity startups and the task superior firms backing them.

Founded successful precocious 2021, Ballistic Ventures’ founding squad includes Schlein, erstwhile AT&T Cybersecurity president Barmak Meftah and Roger Thornton, who co-founded information companies Fortify Software and AlienVault. The steadfast has backed companies including Talon Cyber Security, acquired by Palo Alto Networks, and Pangea, bought by CrowdStrike, alongside startups specified arsenic Armadin, GetReal, Nudge Security and Oligo Security.

Ballistic’s ties to storied task superior steadfast Kleiner Perkins, wherever Schlein spent much than 2 decades, assistance acceptable it isolated from rivals, a cybersecurity capitalist astatine different VC steadfast told TechCrunch. Its concern strategy, however, is akin to those of different cybersecurity-focused investors, including Forgepoint Capital and Ten Eleven Ventures, the idiosyncratic said.

In 2022, Ballistic announced its $300 cardinal debut fund and raised different $360 cardinal for its 2nd flagship money 2 years later. It besides raised astir $130 cardinal for a abstracted conveyance called Ballistic Ventures Fund A, per PitchBook data. The caller Fund B is targeting a akin amount.

U.S. cybersecurity startups raised $11.5 cardinal successful 2025, the highest since 2022, a caller report by JPMorgan Chase said, citing PitchBook data. AI-enabled companies accounted for astir 72% of U.S. cybersecurity task deals done May this year, compared with 36% successful 2019, the study said.

Separately, Microsoft, successful its yearly Digital Defense Report released past month, warned that hackers are progressively utilizing AI for activities ranging from phishing and societal engineering to malware development. The exertion is allowing attackers to run faster and astatine greater scale, adjacent arsenic galore of their underlying techniques stay unchanged.

Ballistic Ventures declined to remark connected its fundraising plans.