Apate Raised Seed Funding to Fight AI Scammers
The startup deployed AI agents that have successfully diverted 590,000 calls from scammers to gather fraud intelligence.
Updated on Oct. 14, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence
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Apate has secured $8.15 million in seed funding to expand its operations after developing AI agents that masquerade as victims. These bots have conducted 2.5 million conversations with scammers, effectively wasting 17 years of the criminals' time.
Why it matters
The company aims to combat a surge in financial fraud by automating intelligence gathering and providing data to banks and telecom firms. This approach helps prevent losses from AI-driven scams, which cost victims $893 million in 2025.
Apate deploys thousands of AI agents powered by frontier and fine-tuned models to extract details like bank accounts from scammers. TPG Telecom has already diverted 590,000 calls to these agents, contributing to a 76% reduction in reported scam losses at Commonwealth Bank.
The players
Apate
This startup uses AI agents to interact with scammers to collect intelligence on fraudulent operations.
TPG Telecom
The telecommunications company partnered with Apate by diverting hundreds of thousands of calls to its AI agents.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
This financial institution utilized Apate's technology and saw a significant decrease in scam losses.
FBI
The agency serves as the primary federal law enforcement body responsible for tracking cyber-related crimes in the United States.
The details
Founded in 2024, the 20-person team at Apate designed their AI to engage scammers across emails, messages, and phone calls. By automating the extraction of sensitive financial data, the startup provides critical intelligence to government agencies and private partners.
Timeline
Apate was founded in 2024.
The FBI recorded 22,000 AI-related crime complaints in 2025.
Apate raised $8.15 million in seed funding in August 2026.
The Tech Race
Apate's platform represents a shift from passive fraud detection to proactive, AI-led disruption of criminal infrastructure. This technology directly counters the growing sophistication of automated scams by effectively weaponizing conversational AI against the perpetrators.
Users benefit from this technology through a reduced likelihood of falling victim to automated financial scams. The integration of these agents by telecom and banking providers acts as a background shield for customers against increasingly complex fraud attempts.
The takeaway
Apate demonstrates that automation can be effectively used to drain the resources of malicious actors rather than just ignoring them. Readers should remain cautious of unsolicited communications, as AI-driven scams continue to evolve in sophistication and scale.
Further reading
For more on how automated systems are reshaping security, see our latest coverage on Artificial Intelligence.
Source note: This article includes information reported by TechCrunch.
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