Blackbird.AI's YoY Momentum Accelerates With 118% ARR Growth, 3X Customer Wins, And $28 Million in New Strategic Funding To Protect Executives, Global Brands, and National Security Organizations from Narrative Attacks

In partnership with Ten Eleven Ventures, Dorilton Ventures, Dave DeWalt, and Chris Young, the company leads the massive opportunity to protect against the world's #1 Global Threat

NEW YORK, Jan. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackbird.AI, the leader in protecting organizations and executives from narrative attacks that cause financial, operational, reputational, and physical harm, announced today that the company's momentum has accelerated, experiencing 118% YoY ARR growth, 3X customer logo wins, and $28M in new strategic funding, bringing total funding from inception to $58M. The company's growth demonstrates that its AI-based narrative intelligence technology platform is quickly being adopted by the Global 2000 and national security organizations to protect against AI-generated narrative-based disinformation attacks. Participating investors included Ten Eleven Ventures, Dorilton Ventures, and cybersecurity executive leaders - Dave DeWalt (CEO and Founder of NightDragon, former CEO of FireEye and McAfee) and Chris Young (Former Microsoft EVP Strategy and Ventures, Former CEO of McAfee).

This momentum will further accelerate the company's go-to-market efforts to support customers and further enhance its AI-based narrative intelligence technology platform, which safeguards against narrative attacks from disinformation, misinformation, and deepfakes, a threat the World Economic Forum named the #1 global threat for the second year in a row. The size, scale, and harmful impact of the narrative attack campaigns continue to grow exponentially. "By 2028, Gartner predicts enterprise spending on battling misinformation and disinformation will surpass $30 billion, cannibalizing 10% of marketing and cybersecurity budgets to combat a multifront threat." Gartner recently published a report titled "AI Vendor Race: Blackbird.AI Is the Company to Beat for Disinformation Narrative Intelligence." In the report, Gartner states that "Blackbird.AI's strong brand, defining thought leadership, industry-first feature expansion, and key partnerships make it the frontrunner in the disinformation narrative intelligence AI race."

"The cost of narrative attacks has collapsed, and the consequences have exploded. Threat actors and nation states are operationalizing narrative warfare against countries, companies, and executives. Enterprises are losing clarity in decision-making due to AI-driven disinformation campaigns. Platforms are facing a massive risk of synthetic escalation. Agencies and cyber teams are scrambling for capabilities they cannot enable fast enough across a new threat attack surface," said Wasim Khaled, CEO and Co-founder of Blackbird.AI. "With support from Ten Eleven Ventures, Dorilton Ventures, and cybersecurity executive leaders - Dave DeWalt and Chris Young, we will accelerate our leadership position in the market to enable our customers to win against this new threat vector."

Examples of narrative attack threats include:

• Corporate and executive targeting: Threat actor campaigns about executive conduct or company financial instability can trigger sharp market reactions, erasing billions in value and undermining investor trust and confidence.
• Consumer brands: Claims about product or company initiatives can spread rapidly across social media, prompting boycotts, brand cancellations, and labor issues.
• Critical infrastructure: Viral rumors of power grid failures, refinery disruptions, and water contamination can trigger emergency mobilizations and disrupt essential services.
• Geopolitical influence: AI-generated images or videos falsely attributed to global leaders can quickly go viral online, sparking unrest and diplomatic tensions.

"Blackbird.AI stands at the forefront of narrative intelligence, offering a dominant approach to protecting organizations from this new threat of narrative-based disinformation attacks," said Dave DeWalt, CEO of NightDragon and former CEO of McAfee and FireEye. "As we look out into the world today, it's clear that Blackbird.AI's technology is more essential than ever, providing impact and value to the most important organizations in the world."

"I have been involved in reviewing hundreds of investment decisions throughout my career that focus on innovative startups solving massive problems for cybersecurity teams and the companies they serve," said Chris Young, former Microsoft EVP Strategy and Ventures. "Blackbird.AI has uniquely innovated using AI to unlock new and differentiated insights for its customers. They have assembled the right team that's driving true market momentum."

Blackbird.AI was named by 'Forrester Research, Inc. as the only notable provider to support protection against narrative attacks in the Forrester's report, The External Threat Intelligence Service Providers Landscape, named a winner of Fast Company's Next Big Things in Tech 2024 in the AI and Data category, named to Inc.'s 2025 Best in Business list in the Best in Innovation category, winner of the SINET16 Innovation Award and Khaled was featured in a keynote at Fortune Brainstorm Tech called Perception, Lies and AI. The company announced strategic partnerships with WWT, BlackCloak and Security Risk Advisors, and launched Compass Context to provide clarity to online claims, article links, posts, or videos, and Compass Vision to identify AI-generated images and videos through its AI-driven Constellation Narrative Intelligence Platform.

Source: Gartner®, Press Release, 21 October 2025, "Gartner Predicts Enterprise Spending on Battling Misinformation and Disinformation Will Surpass $30 Billion by 2028."
GARTNER is a trademark of Gartner, Inc. and its affiliates.

Source: Gartner®, AI Vendor Race: Blackbird.AI Is the Company to Beat for Disinformation Narrative Intelligence, Alfredo Ramirez IV et al., 8 December 2025

GARTNER is a trademark of Gartner, Inc. and its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product, or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Blackbird.AI
BLACKBIRD.AI protects executives and organizations from narrative-based disinformation attacks that cause financial, operational, reputational, and physical harm. Our AI-driven Narrative Intelligence Platform identifies key narratives that impact your executives, organization and industry, the influence behind them, the networks they touch, the anomalous behavior that scales them, and the cohorts and communities that connect them. This information enables organizations to proactively understand narrative threats as they scale and become harmful for better strategic decision-making. A diverse team of AI experts, threat intelligence analysts, and national security professionals founded Blackbird.AI to defend information integrity and fight a new class of narrative threats. To learn more, visit Blackbird.AI.

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SOURCE Blackbird.AI