Dawnguard, a cybersecurity startup developing security architecture automation for cloud-native environments, has launched its platform to help organizations design, build, and operate secure infrastructure from the earliest stages of development. The launch follows a year of customer validation and enterprise partnerships.
The company also opened a New York City office and secured an additional $3.3 million in pre-seed funding from BNVT Capital, Curiosity VC, and eCAPITAL, bringing total funding to more than $6.3 million. The investment will support product development, AI-powered architecture intelligence, international expansion, and enterprise growth.
Securing Infrastructure by Design
Dawnguard addresses security risks introduced during software design rather than after deployment. The platform enables organizations to design compliant cloud architectures, automatically generate production-ready Infrastructure as Code (IaC), continuously validate deployed environments, and keep infrastructure aligned with approved security designs.
Instead of relying on reactive security tools, the platform helps engineering and security teams collaborate within a shared architecture workspace to prevent vulnerabilities before they reach production.
“Cybersecurity has become trapped in an endless cycle of detection, response, and patching. For twenty years, security was something you added later. That model was already fragile. Today, against an attacker running at machine speed, it becomes increasingly indefensible. When probing is continuous and cheap, the only thing that holds is what was designed correctly from the start,” said Mahdi Abdulrazak, CEO and co-founder of Dawnguard.
Building the Future of Cybersecurity
Founded by cybersecurity experts from IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, and military cyber operations, Dawnguard aims to make security architecture a core part of modern infrastructure. The company plans to expand platform capabilities while helping organizations embed security, compliance, and resilience directly into cloud systems from day one.
“Every engineering team understands the gap between what was designed and what ultimately gets deployed. That gap is where risk lives. Dawnguard closes the distance between intent and reality by turning architecture into enforceable code, continuously validating that systems remain aligned with their original security design. Security should not exist in documents, spreadsheets, or diagrams — it should exist in the systems themselves,” said Kim van Lavieren, CTO and co-founder of Dawnguard.