Mahalagang impormasyon
Founded in 2024 following research at Macquarie University, the Australian startup Apate.ai utilizes thousands of AI agents to engage with fraudsters. These agents masquerade as potential victims across phone calls, emails, and social media to gather intelligence on scam operations before harm occurs to real individuals.
The agents are designed to mimic diverse personas, including varying ages, genders, and languages, to keep scammers occupied. By doing so, the company reports that its fleet has wasted 17 years of scammers' time across 2.5 million conversations, while simultaneously extracting sensitive data like bank accounts, crypto wallets, and malicious URLs.
Apate provides this intelligence to clients, including Commonwealth Bank of Australia and TPG Telecom, through an insights portal. According to co-founder Brad Joffe, TPG Telecom has diverted nearly 590,000 calls to these agents, while Commonwealth Bank reported a 76% reduction in publicly reported scam losses.
The 20-person company recently secured $8.15 million in seed funding, bringing its total raised to just under $10 million. Apate plans to utilize these funds for product development and international expansion, including establishing a presence in London and the United States.
