By Hamza Faisal
Indian cybersecurity startup Protectt.ai has taken a majority stake in AIShield, an AI security platform incubated inside Bosch Global Software Technologies, in a deal that pushes the mobile-security specialist into the fast-growing market for protecting enterprise artificial intelligence systems.
The Bessemer Venture Partners-backed company acquired the controlling stake through a mix of primary share purchases and secondary transactions, founder and chief executive Manish Mimani told reporters. The financial value of the deal was not disclosed, and Bosch will retain a minority stake in the business.
AIShield, formally AI Shield Private Limited, will continue to operate as a separate entity under Protectt.ai, with its existing intellectual property transferred to the new structure and a professional management team leading its research into AI security.
From mobile defence to AI security
Founded in 2020 by Mimani and Mohanraj Selvaraj, Protectt.ai built its name on mobile threat defence, helping businesses protect apps against cyber threats and fraud. Its platform also acts as a compliance hub for app owners, ensuring they meet regulations from bodies such as the Reserve Bank of India, market regulator SEBI and the National Payments Corporation of India.
Protectt.ai says its security technology now runs on more than one billion mobile devices and processes 15 billion mobile app sessions every month. The company has also been building a full-stack AI security platform of its own, covering adversarial testing for agentic AI, Model Context Protocol security, and runtime security and governance for AI agents.
AIShield, founded in 2022 by Shiv Kumar and Amit Phadke inside Bosch's software arm, specialises in protecting machine learning models, generative AI applications and AI supply chains against attacks designed to manipulate AI systems, as well as the compliance risks that come with deploying them. The combination, Protectt.ai argues, gives it both the mobile reach and the AI-specific expertise to sell a complete security stack to enterprises.
A team set to quadruple by March
Protectt.ai plans to grow AIShield's team from 12 to 15 employees today to between 50 and 60 by March, with the expanded unit focusing on product development, research and patent filings. Mimani said the unit will also be able to raise external funding in the future and plans to work with private companies and government organisations to build a Make in India security platform for AI.
The deal is Protectt.ai's first acquisition. The startup set up a dedicated mergers-and-acquisitions team earlier in 2026 to evaluate purchases and partnerships, and it is already exploring further deals in areas such as API security and cloud security that could complement its existing capabilities.
Why AI security is suddenly a boardroom issue
The acquisition lands as enterprises rush to deploy AI agents and generative AI tools, and as attackers increasingly target the models themselves, from data poisoning and prompt manipulation to compromised AI supply chains. Australia's cyber agency warned this week that AI has become the defining force in the threat landscape, and vendors that can prove their AI systems are safe are winning enterprise deals.
Protectt.ai raised around $16 million in a Series A round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Bajaj Finance in 2025, and Mimani said the company is evaluating opportunities and expects to consider raising fresh funds in 2027 as it builds out its AI security ambitions.
