Every startup journey begins with a moment of discomfort—an insight that something fundamental in an industry is broken. For Mohd Sohaib, that moment came after nearly 15 years in the IT industry, spanning healthtech, FinTech, IoT, and cybersecurity. Across roles and sectors, one pattern stood out: security was often treated as a periodic checkbox, not a living, evolving capability.
That realization laid the foundation for CurlSek, an AI-driven Security Intelligence Platform designed to shift cybersecurity from reactive assessments to continuous, intelligence-led protection.
From Enterprise IT to Entrepreneurial Risk
Sohaib’s professional journey gave him a front-row view of how organizations approach security—often driven by compliance deadlines, audits, or incidents rather than proactive intelligence. Along with his co-founder Rinkish Khera, he saw a clear gap in the market. While systems were growing more complex and attack surfaces expanding, security programs remained largely static and manual.
CurlSek was born from a simple but powerful belief: security must be continuous, contextual, and actionable—not something revisited once a quarter or once a year.
Consulting First, Product Later
Unlike many startups that rush to build a product, CurlSek began as a consulting-led initiative. The team embedded itself deeply within the security programs of fast-scaling startups, working alongside internal teams to understand real-world pain points.
This phase proved critical. It helped the founders identify where manual processes were breaking down, where signal-to-noise ratios were poor, and where automation and intelligence could genuinely add value. Only after this immersion did CurlSek transition into an AI-first product mindset, focused on delivering repeatable, scalable security outcomes.
The result was a platform positioned not as another assessment tool, but as a Security Intelligence Layer—one that continuously interprets risk, prioritizes action, and adapts as environments change.
Earning Trust in a Skeptical Industry
Cybersecurity is a stress-driven industry, and trust is hard-won. For CurlSek, the biggest early challenge was credibility. AI-led security solutions often face skepticism, particularly when customers expect deterministic accuracy in high-stakes environments.
To overcome this, the team focused relentlessly on proof. CurlSek tested its systems across 500+ open-source labs, ensuring the platform could handle scale, complexity, and real-world attack patterns. Deep integrations into customer environments further helped demonstrate reliability and relevance.
Equally important was feedback from non-technical stakeholders. Early users made it clear that security insights needed to be understandable not just to CISOs, but also to business leaders and decision-makers. CurlSek responded by simplifying dashboards, clarifying reports, and aligning outputs with business risk rather than raw vulnerabilities.
The Power of Continuous Intelligence
At its core, CurlSek’s value proposition lies in continuous security intelligence. Instead of overwhelming teams with alerts or static reports, the platform focuses on clarity—what the real risks are, why they matter, and what should be fixed first.
By combining AI-driven reasoning with deep domain expertise, CurlSek delivers systems that are explainable, auditable, and grounded in real-world security behavior. Its models are trained on environments used by actual attackers, enabling faster detection of vulnerabilities—including zero-day risks—and more effective remediation.
The emphasis is on outcomes, not checklists: faster response times, reduced costs, and security teams that can focus on decisions rather than data overload.
Fundraising with Intent
CurlSek’s approach to fundraising mirrors its product philosophy—deliberate and substance-first. The team chose to raise capital only when it became clear that scaling AI training, hiring specialized talent, and expanding go-to-market efforts required significant investment.
Funds are now being deployed to enhance model accuracy, deepen cloud-native and regulatory-aligned security coverage, and build a team capable of supporting global expansion. Just as importantly, fundraising has opened doors to industry networks and investor feedback that continues to shape the company’s direction.
Defining the Future of AI-Native Security
In the short term, CurlSek aims to become indispensable to customer security workflows, embedding seamlessly into CI/CD pipelines and day-to-day operations. The longer-term ambition is even bolder: to define how AI-native security platforms operate globally.
As organizations prepare for increasingly complex threat landscapes, CurlSek envisions a shift from reactive defense to proactive intelligence, where AI augments human judgment and enables smarter, faster decision-making across security teams.
Lessons for First-Time Founders
Reflecting on his journey, Sohaib emphasizes a principle often lost in the hype around emerging technologies: start with the real problem. AI, he believes, should be a force multiplier—not the starting point.
Shipping early, staying close to users, and being willing to challenge long-standing industry assumptions are essential. In cybersecurity especially, progress depends on measurable impact, continuous learning, and the courage to rethink outdated models.
For CurlSek, that mindset continues to guide every decision—turning intelligence into action, and ambition into execution.
Interview Conducted By: Arushi Agarwal
