Hilt

Hilt is an AI cybersecurity startup building software that detects and stops unusual data activity inside companies, including the theft of sensitive information. Its platform monitors how data moves across cloud infrastructure, computers and networks, building behavioral baselines for users and resources. It flags unusual activity even when a user has valid permission to perform it, catching the breaches that look like normal behavior rather than obvious attacks.

The technology works at the kernel, the core of the operating system, streaming activity data to graph neural networks that identify anomalies. That gives Hilt visibility beneath the different software applications its customers use, so it can deploy across a range of environments. When it spots something suspicious, it can alert the security team to investigate or quarantine the activity as it happens, stopping breaches in real time instead of reporting them after the data is gone. The product runs entirely inside the customer’s own infrastructure, so sensitive data never leaves the company.

Hilt was built first for latency-sensitive environments such as high-frequency trading, where security software cannot afford to introduce delays. Beyond trading firms, it is seeing interest from neobanks, healthcare businesses and professional services firms that deal with sensitive information. The 11-person team is based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is led by co-founder and CEO William Cielen alongside co-founder and CTO Alexandre Genest.