In late July 2026, Cathedral, a stealth military-cybersecurity startup founded by four former DOGE staffers (Gavin Kliger, Luke Farritor, Marko Elez and Jack Stein), raised $160 million at a $1.4 billion valuation. Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital co-led and both took board seats, a rare joint lead, to fund AI-driven offensive and defensive cyber operations.
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Ex-DOGE founders raise $160M at $1.4B for AI cyber startup Cathedral
Why this matters for founders
Defense and dual-use AI is drawing top-tier capital and rare a16z+Sequoia co-leads; founders in security or govtech can read this as investor appetite for regulated, high-stakes AI and position pitches accordingly.
Source: The Next Web
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