CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Detectify vs Kai

Detectify is an application security platform that combines Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) and Attack Surface Management (ASM). Kai is an AI company that sells the Kai Autonomous Defense Platform, an agentic AI platform for cyber asset management, application security, infrastructure vulnerability management, and detection engineering. CISO Tribune files both under External attack surface management. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

Change the companies

Up to four companies side by side.

  • Detectify
  • Kai
Detectify vs Kai: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
DetectifyDetectify is an application security platform that combines Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) and Attack Surface Management (ASM).detectify.comKaiKai is an AI company that sells the Kai Autonomous Defense Platform, an agentic AI platform for cyber asset management, application security, infrastructure vulnerability management, and detection engineering.kai.security
What it sells
  • Application Scanning[9][10]Crawls and fuzzes custom web apps, including the parts behind login.
  • API Scanning[10]Tests every operation in an OpenAPI spec or GraphQL schema with payload-based tests.
  • Alfred AI[13]Turns published CVEs into payload-based tests that a Detectify security researcher reviews before they go live.
  • Kai Autonomous Defense Platform[4][13]An agentic AI platform that executes the exposure lifecycle end to end without human handoffs.
  • Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM)[7]Runs all five CTEM phases and adds auto-remediation and detection as phases six and seven.
  • Kai Watch[7]Monitors telemetry to identify active exploitation while fixes are in progress.
  • AI-native SAST[15]A SAST capability in preview for select customers.
Categories
Headquarters
Stockholm, SwedenSan Jose, United States
Founded
2013[1]Not stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Owned by Insight Partners since 2024[2][5][6][13]Privately held[5]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • October 29, 2026Detectify announced that it is one of the vendors featured in KuppingerCole's 2026 Leadership Compass on Attack Surface Management.[17]
  • May 26, 2026Detectify unveiled an MCP Server, an integration layer that brings its security testing engines into AI.[4]
  • March 24, 2026Detectify launched IP Range Scanning, which enables continuous discovery and monitoring of entire IP address blocks.[18]
  • February 3, 2026Detectify launched Internal Scanning, which brings its crawling and fuzzing engine behind the customer's firewall.[3]
  • July 29, 2026Kai announced findings from its 2026 State of Autonomous Defense Report and made its Auto Remediation capability available.[16]
  • March 10, 2026Kai emerged from stealth with $125 million in funding, led by Evolution Equity Partners with participation from N47 and strategic investors.[11]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: listed, seen November 4, 2026[5]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
Not written yetFrom its own pages, the company sells mainly to enterprises. A blog post on its site says it has delivered autonomous security work for enterprises across multiple verticals. Its detection phase names SIEM, EDR, and XDR as the places where it deploys rules. It also says humans control the boundary between autonomous action and human review.
Last verified
November 2, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Detectify and Kai are both filed under External attack surface management.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Detectify's primary category is Dynamic application security testing; Kai's is AI SOC analysts.
  • Kai is also filed under Threat intelligence.
  • Detectify lists Application Scanning, API Scanning and Alfred AI. Kai lists Kai Autonomous Defense Platform, Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM), Kai Watch and AI-native SAST.
  • Detectify is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Kai is headquartered in San Jose, United States.
  • Detectify was founded in 2013.
  • Detectify is owned by Insight Partners, since 2024. Kai is privately held.

What it sells: Detectify

What Application Scanning does[9][10]
Application Scanning crawls apps in a real browser, so it renders JavaScript and handles single-page apps. It tests with payloads from 1,765+ modules built by ethical hackers in the Crowdsource community. A recorded login lets it test areas behind sign-in.
What API Scanning does[10]
API Scanning builds the scan from an uploaded OpenAPI spec or GraphQL schema. Findings are confirmed by running the payload, not by matching a signature.
What Alfred AI does[13]
Alfred AI monitors public CVE disclosures to find CVEs with a working public proof of concept. It builds a payload-based test from the proof of concept. A Detectify security researcher reviews every test before it goes live.

What it sells: Kai

What Kai Autonomous Defense Platform does[4][13]
The Kai Autonomous Defense Platform executes the exposure lifecycle end to end without human handoffs. Kai aggregates findings from existing security and IT systems, determines reachability and exploitability, discards what cannot be exploited, attaches evidence to what survives, and then remediates. Kai agents interrogate CMDB, endpoint, cloud, identity, scanning, and code systems, then rebuild each asset record from the evidence they find.
What Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) does[7]
Kai runs all five phases, then adds two more: it executes the assigned fix immediately, and it watches exposed assets with targeted detection rules until remediated. Auto-remediation sits at phase six, where Kai takes immediate action once a fix is assigned.
What Kai Watch does[7]
Kai Watch continuously monitors telemetry to identify active exploitation. Kai Watch deploys validated detection rules to contain risk across the environment while fixes are in progress. Kai Watch is part of the detection phase, which Kai places at phase seven once remediation is underway.
What AI-native SAST does[15]
Kai is releasing an AI-native SAST capability in preview for select customers. Kai applies AI-native reachability analysis from the start, combining static analysis with runtime behavior to determine whether a finding is actually exploitable before it reaches a human. Kai validated each finding by automatically generating exploits and running them in an out-of-band non-production environment.

Questions about Detectify and Kai

What do Detectify and Kai sell?
Detectify sells Application Scanning, API Scanning and Alfred AI. Kai sells Kai Autonomous Defense Platform, Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM), Kai Watch and AI-native SAST.
Are Detectify and Kai in the same category?
They share External attack surface management. Detectify's primary category is Dynamic application security testing and Kai's is AI SOC analysts.
Where are Detectify and Kai headquartered?
Detectify is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Kai is headquartered in San Jose, United States.
When were Detectify and Kai founded?
Detectify was founded in 2013.
Who owns Detectify and Kai?
Detectify is owned by Insight Partners, since 2024. Kai is privately held.
Who are Detectify and Kai sold to?
From its own pages, the company sells mainly to enterprises.
What have Detectify and Kai announced recently?
October 29, 2026: Detectify announced that it is one of the vendors featured in KuppingerCole's 2026 Leadership Compass on Attack Surface Management. July 29, 2026: Kai announced findings from its 2026 State of Autonomous Defense Report and made its Auto Remediation capability available.

About Detectify

Detectify is an application security platform that combines Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) and Attack Surface Management (ASM). Detectify says it discovers a full attack surface, including assets an organization may not know exist, and tests every asset for exploitable vulnerabilities using payload-based techniques developed by more than 400 ethical hackers.

Detectify describes a problem with legacy application security: scanners only test the assets they are told about, so shadow IT stays invisible. Detectify also says fingerprint-based checks flag versions instead of real exploitability. Detectify positions its platform as SaaS-only with nothing to install.[7][14]

Every Detectify product starts with Discovery, a single inventory of assets that becomes the source of truth for every scan, integration and finding across the platform. Surface Monitoring finds the domains, subdomains, IPs and open ports a customer has on the internet, and keeps testing them with payload-based tests. Surface Monitoring also checks subdomains for takeover every 8 hours.[7][8]

Application Scanning crawls and fuzzes custom web apps, including single-page apps and the parts behind login. API Scanning takes an OpenAPI spec or GraphQL schema and tests every operation in it with payload-based tests, including prompt injection on AI endpoints. Both use the same fuzzing engine.[9][10]

Detectify also offers tools for AI. Alfred AI turns published CVEs into payload-based tests, and a Detectify security researcher reviews each one before it goes live. The MCP Server lets Claude Code, Cursor and other AI tools query Detectify findings, scans and assets in plain language, and it is included in every Detectify plan.[14]

Detectify says its research comes from Crowdsource, a community of 400+ ethical hackers, and that 99% of the vulnerabilities it finds have no CVE assigned, based on its own data over the past three years. Detectify says it is used by more than 2,100 organizations, from high-growth SaaS companies to large enterprises and public institutions.[7][8][9][10][11][12][14][15][16]

Detectify on the record

Sources

Detectify full record

  1. [1]AboutDetectify · detectify.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Insight partners acquires majority stake in detectifyDetectify · newsroom.detectify.com · published October 29, 2024 · Tier A
  3. [3]Introducing Detectify Internal Scanning for internal scanning behind the firewallDetectify · published February 3, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Detectify brings AppSec automation to AI agents with MCP Server and continuous testingHelp Net Security · published May 26, 2026 · Tier B
  5. [5]Detectify Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier C
  6. [6]Detectify - Application security built and trusted by hackersDetectify · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Application security built on hacker researchDetectify · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Surface Monitoring | Attack Surface Management | DetectifyDetectify · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Application Scanning | DAST for Web Apps | DetectifyDetectify · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]API Scanning | API Security Testing | DetectifyDetectify · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Internal Scanning | DAST for Internal Apps | DetectifyDetectify · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]PCI ASV Scanning | Approved PCI DSS Scans | DetectifyDetectify · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Alfred AI | CVE Tests Built by AI | DetectifyDetectify · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]MCP Server | Claude Code, Cursor and more | DetectifyDetectify · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Agentic Tooling | DetectifyDetectify · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]Integrations | Jira, Slack, Teams and More | DetectifyDetectify · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]Detectify featured in KuppingerCole's Analysts 2026 Leadership Compass on Attack Surface ManagementDetectify · published October 29, 2026 · Tier A
  18. [18]Detectify uncovers hidden assets and risks across entire IP rangesHelp Net Security · published March 24, 2026 · Tier B

Kai full record

  1. [1]kai.securityKai · kai.security · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Kai emerges from stealth with 125m powering machine speed defense to outpace ai enabled adversaries 302708978Kai via PR Newswire · prnewswire.co.uk · published March 10, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]kai.securityKai Cyber Inc. · kai.security · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Kai Autonomous Defense Platform | End-to-End Agentic Risk ReductionKai · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]PlatformKai · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]We Aren’t Building a Better Tool. We’re Rebuilding Security. | Kai AI-Native Autonomous Defense PlatformKai · published March 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Continuous Threat Exposure Management | Solutions at KaiKai · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Our Story & Manifesto | Kai Agentic AI PlatformKai · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Cyber Asset Attack Surface ManagementKai · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Mythos | Solutions at KaiKai · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Kai Emerges from Stealth with $125M, Powering Machine-Speed Defense to Outpace AI-Enabled AdversariesKai · published March 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Kai Appoints Alfredo Hickman as CISO to Usher in the Future of AI-Driven Security | Kai Autonomous Defense PlatformKai · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]New Research from Kai: UK CISOs Face a Widening AI Security Gap as Attackers Gain the Advantage | Kai Autonomous Defense PlatformKai · published September 21, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Joining Kai as CISO: Rebuilding Security for the AI Era | Kai Autonomous Defense PlatformKai · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Kai product update: AI-native SAST and deeper vulnerability validation through membership in Anthropic's Cyber Verification Program | Kai Autonomous Defense PlatformKai · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]New Research from Kai: CISOs Say AI Is Accelerating Cyber Threats, Driving the Shift to Machine-Led SecurityPR Newswire · published July 29, 2026 · Tier A

Spot a factual error? Request a correction.