Index Ventures' Shah Bets AI-Native Security Can't Wait for Humans

Google paid $32 billion for cloud security startup Wiz earlier this year — one of the largest acquisitions in the company's history — and Shardul Shah had a front-row seat to the deal. Shah, a partner at Index Ventures, invested in six consecutive rounds of Wiz over nearly two decades of backing cybersecurity and enterprise software companies.

Now Shah is deploying that playbook into a new generation of security startups, and he is doing it earlier than he once would have. On TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Shah told Rebecca Bellan why Index continues investing in AI-native security companies at stages that once required far more proof.

His core argument is simple: periodic, human-in-the-loop security can't keep up anymore. As concern over AI safety and rogue agents continues to make headlines, attacks and threats now move at machine speed. Security models built around humans reviewing alerts at intervals were designed for a slower world.

The market is responding. Cybersecurity stocks are rising, and investors are pouring massive amounts of capital into startups building the next generation of security for an AI-native world. Shah points to companies like Instinct and Simile, which are bringing in nine-figure checks and valuations that wouldn't have made sense a few years ago.

The shift matters for how security companies get funded. Index, under Shah, is writing checks at earlier stages than the firm's historical bar demanded — a bet that the AI security opportunity is large enough and urgent enough to justify backing companies before they have the traction that once preceded a Series A or B.

The Wiz outcome looms over the category. Google's $32 billion acquisition validated the economics of modern cloud security, and Index's six consecutive rounds in the company demonstrate the kind of conviction investing Shah is now applying to AI-native defenders.

The open question for the sector is whether the new cohort can match that trajectory. If Shah is right that periodic, human-in-the-loop security is breaking, the startups building autonomous, AI-native defenses — and the investors backing them early — will define the next decade of the cybersecurity market.