In a cybersecurity landscape increasingly dominated by AI-powered threats, iCOUNTER has publicly emerged after five years of stealth development with a mission to counter highly targeted cyber attacks before they strike.
The Dallas-based cyber risk intelligence company, which spun out of Apollo Information Systems, announced on July 16 its public launch backed by a $30 million Series A funding round led by SYN Ventures. The company is helmed by industry pioneer John Watters, who previously served as president and COO of Mandiant prior to its acquisition by Google.
"We are in the dawn of a new era of cybersecurity," said Watters, CEO and Managing Partner of iCOUNTER. "Traditional methods will increasingly fail, and defenders will be forced to reimagine their defenses against a flood of targeted operations that leverage AI to generate new and novel TTPs."
What distinguishes iCOUNTER from conventional threat intelligence providers is its exclusive focus on countering targeted attacks against specific organizations. The company has developed AI-enabled technology and robust collection infrastructure that allows it to detect early reconnaissance activities, weaponization, and novel TTP (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures) creation before an attack is executed.
This approach comes at a critical time. According to recent industry reports, AI-enabled attackers are rapidly shifting their focus to targeting specific companies, leveraging artificial intelligence to dramatically reduce the time and cost of conducting reconnaissance. Once attackers understand a target's environment and security gaps, they create 'zero-day TTPs' - attack methods that haven't been seen before, rendering traditional threat intelligence ineffective.
"iCOUNTER has built the only intelligence capability exclusively focused on countering targeted attacks," said Jay Leek, Managing Partner and Founder of SYN Ventures. "Their unique approach positions them well in an age of AI-enabled adversaries."
The company's platform acts as an early warning system that identifies threats specific to the customer and its ecosystem, while also providing intelligence for rapid containment and recovery after an attack. Unlike tools that rely on surface-level posture scoring, iCOUNTER uses adversary-style tactics to identify real, exploitable vulnerabilities in the supply chain.
Watters, who previously founded iSIGHT Partners (acquired by FireEye and merged with Mandiant), brings more than two decades of cybersecurity experience to this venture. After Google acquired Mandiant in 2022, he served as a venture partner at SYN Ventures and on the boards of several cybersecurity firms before returning to lead iCOUNTER.
The company has already been providing precision risk intelligence to customers across the U.S. since 2020, reportedly preventing collective losses worth hundreds of millions of dollars from threats posed by nation-states, ransom groups, and other malicious actors.