# Prelude Research

Startup profile on Capital Atlas: https://capitalatlas.ai/startups/prelude-research

- Industry: IT Security/Cybersecurity
- Headquarters: New York, US
- Website: www.preludesecurity.com
- Total disclosed funding: $44M
- Latest round: Series A (Sep 25, 2025)
- Investors on record: 9

## About

Based in Washington, US, and founded in 2020 by Spencer Thompson, Prelude Research, Inc., doing business as Prelude, is a tech startup that uses automated red-teaming to assist businesses to fortify their cyber defenses. In September 2025, Prelude Research, Inc. raised USD 16 million in series A funding led by new investor Brightmind Partners, with participation from returning investors Sequoia Capital and Insight Partners. The round was part of larger USD 40 million series A funding.

Prelude is a self-contained platform for attacking, defending, and training crucial assets. The company has created chains that replicate real-world cyberattacks and can be used to test internal defenses. Their operator includes direct connectors with defensive tools such as Crowdstrike, Splunk, Elastic, and VECTR, allowing for real-time command and control of assets as well as giving repositories a view into the agents and attacks running against the system. Additionally, the firm supplies Prelude's APIs, which schedule, automate, and attack any agents, as well as automatically submit data to defensive tools.

The firm generates revenue by charging for its monitored endpoint. It charges base platform fee of 4,000/year as well as USD 1.50/endpoint Up to 25,000 monitored endpoint, USD 1.25/endpoint up to 75,000 monitored endpoint, etc.

The company plan to use the September 2025 funding to expand its runtime memory protection technology, grow platform support, and increase customer deployments.

## Funding rounds

- Series A, Sep 25, 2025, $16M — Hong Shan, Insight Partners, Brightmind Partners
- Series A, Apr 12, 2022, $24M — Hong Shan, Insight Partners, IA Ventures, Revolution Ventures, Four Rivers Group, General Advance
- Seed, May 21, 2021, $4.3M — IA Ventures, Revolution Ventures, Four Rivers Group, New Ground Ventures, General Advance, The MITRE Corporation

## Investors

- IA Ventures (https://capitalatlas.ai/funds/ia-ventures) — Seed, Series A
- Revolution Ventures (https://capitalatlas.ai/funds/revolution-ventures) — Seed, Series A
- Four Rivers Group (https://capitalatlas.ai/funds/four-rivers-group) — Seed, Series A
- New Ground Ventures (https://capitalatlas.ai/funds/new-ground-ventures) — Seed
- General Advance (https://capitalatlas.ai/funds/general-advance) — Seed, Series A
- The MITRE Corporation — Seed
- Hong Shan — Series A
- Insight Partners (https://capitalatlas.ai/funds/insight-partners) — Series A
- Brightmind Partners (https://capitalatlas.ai/funds/brightmind-partners) — Series A