Kasada, an Australia-founded cybersecurity firm specialising in bot mitigation and online fraud prevention, has raised $20 million in fresh funding led by EQT, as the company pushes global expansion and broadens its capabilities to combat AI-driven digital threats.
Existing backers Ten Eleven Ventures; Main Sequence Ventures; Westpac’s venture capital arm, Our Innovation Fund; StepStone Group; and Turnbull & Partners also participated in the round, the company said on Wednesday.
Founded in 2015, Kasada provides security tools designed to block malicious automation and fraud targeting enterprises, including account takeovers, data scraping, and API exploitation. The company said its technology helps protect more than $150 billion in global e-commerce revenue by identifying attacks at the earliest stages of automated abuse.
The new funding will support Kasada’s expansion into new markets and development of products focused on fraud prevention and so-called “agentic defence”, aimed at countering increasingly sophisticated AI-driven threats.
CEO and founder Sam Crowther said enterprises face mounting pressure from automated attacks that damage customer experience and raise operating costs. Kasada’s approach detects threats at their source, helping customers prevent fraud before it spreads through their systems, he said.
“This approach reduces operational cost while dramatically improving security outcomes—to date, our average return on investment is over 250% driven largely by cost savings. This new investment enables us to expand globally and deliver a broader, end-to-end trust platform that secures every digital experience across login, signup, payments, APIs, and AI applications, without introducing friction to legitimate users,” Crowther added.
For EQT, the investment marks its second venture growth partnership with an Australia-headquartered company.
“Kasada is redefining how enterprises protect themselves in an AI-enabled world, moving beyond bot mitigation to help shape the future of digital trust,” said Frank Heckes, co-head of EQT Private Capital Australia and New Zealand at EQT. “We’re excited to bring EQT’s global network and resources to help accelerate this vision as Kasada evolves into a true system of intelligence,” he said.
