Protectt.ai Takes a Controlling Stake in Bosch-Incubated AIShield to Build a 'Make in India' Security Platform for AI Agents

As businesses rush to deploy artificial intelligence agents, a new category of security risk is emerging, and an Indian cybersecurity company is moving quickly to address it through its first acquisition.

Protectt.ai, a Bengaluru-based mobile security company, plans to acquire a controlling stake in AIShield, an AI security platform incubated within Bosch Global Software Technologies (BGSW), Inc42 reported on Tuesday, October 27. Bosch will retain a minority stake.

The deal combines a primary share issuance and a secondary purchase. The transaction value and timeline were not disclosed.

"There will be cash, a secondary component and future investments as required," co-founder Manish Mimani told Inc42. "The current structure is a combination of cash and ESOPs."

Who is Protectt.ai

Protectt.ai was founded in 2020 by Manish Mimani and Mohanraj Selvaraj. The company specialises in mobile threat defence, helping businesses protect their mobile apps against cyberattacks and fraud. It also acts as a compliance hub for app owners, helping them meet security requirements set by the Reserve Bank of India, the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the National Payments Corporation of India.

According to the company, its technology runs on more than one billion mobile devices and processes 15 billion mobile app sessions a month. It is backed by Bessemer Venture Partners and raised about $16 million in a Series A round in 2025 led by Bessemer and Bajaj Finance.

Protectt.ai set up a mergers and acquisitions team earlier in 2026, and the AIShield deal is its first acquisition of this kind.

What AIShield does

AIShield was founded in 2022 by Shiv Kumar and Amit Phadke and incubated within BGSW, Bosch's software and digital solutions arm in India. It focuses on protecting machine learning models, generative AI applications and AI supply chains from adversarial attacks and compliance risks.

Adversarial attacks involve manipulating the inputs to an AI system to make it behave in unintended ways, for example by tricking a model into revealing sensitive information or bypassing safety controls. As companies deploy AI in critical functions, protecting models from such attacks has become a priority.

Securing the age of AI agents

Protectt.ai's AI security offerings include adversarial testing for agentic AI, security for the Model Context Protocol, a standard that allows AI agents to connect to external tools and data, and runtime security and governance for agentic AI.

Mimani expects mobile apps to increasingly use AI agents, potentially becoming "UI-less" within one to two years, meaning users may interact with services through AI agents rather than traditional screens and buttons. That shift would create new security challenges, since AI agents can take actions on behalf of users, access sensitive data and interact with multiple systems.

How AIShield will operate

AIShield will operate as an independent entity under Protectt.ai, with its own professional management team and a focus on research and engineering. It can raise external funding in the future.

The company currently has about 12-15 employees and plans to grow to 50-60 by March 2027, hiring PhD researchers, master's graduates and other technical talent. Some members of Protectt.ai's AI security team will move to AIShield.

Strategic goals

The combination aims to bring together AIShield's AI security capabilities and Protectt.ai's mobile security platform, extending Protectt.ai's offerings from mobile apps to enterprise AI use cases across sectors. The companies plan to work with private companies and government organisations on what they describe as a "Make in India security platform for AI."

Protectt.ai is also exploring acquisitions or partnerships in API security and cloud security. Mimani said the company is evaluating options and may consider raising funds in 2027.

The banking angle

Protectt.ai's strong presence in banking and financial services is significant. Indian banks, fintech companies and payment apps handle billions of transactions and are prime targets for fraud and cyberattacks. As these institutions adopt AI for customer service, fraud detection and operations, securing AI systems becomes a regulatory and business necessity.

Indian regulators have tightened cybersecurity requirements for financial institutions, and AI governance is an emerging area of regulatory focus.

Corporate incubation to startup

The deal is also an example of a corporate-incubated venture finding a new home with a startup. Large companies such as Bosch often incubate new technologies internally, but some ventures can grow faster as independent businesses with access to startup capital and agility. Bosch's continued minority stake allows it to benefit from AIShield's growth.

The AI security market

AI security is one of the fastest-growing segments of cybersecurity. Global cybersecurity companies and startups are building tools to protect AI models, data and agents, and acquisitions in the space have been frequent as larger firms seek to add capabilities.

For Indian companies, building domestic AI security capabilities aligns with government priorities on digital sovereignty and data protection.

Why mobile app security matters in India

India has one of the world's largest mobile banking and payments ecosystems. Banking apps, payment apps and trading platforms are used by hundreds of millions of people, making them attractive targets for fraudsters who use techniques such as malware, screen-sharing scams, fake apps and device tampering. Regulators have responded by requiring financial institutions to implement stronger security controls in their apps.

Protectt.ai's runtime protection technology detects threats on the user's device, such as tampering or malicious software, and helps app owners block fraudulent activity. Its scale, operating on more than a billion devices, reflects the reach of the financial apps that use its technology.

The talent question

Building advanced AI security capabilities requires specialised researchers in machine learning, adversarial attacks and security engineering, a talent pool that is scarce globally. AIShield's plan to hire PhD researchers and master's graduates reflects the importance of research depth in a field where attackers continually develop new techniques. Competition for such talent from global technology companies and well-funded startups is intense.

What comes next

Protectt.ai and AIShield will integrate their offerings and expand AIShield's team. Their progress will be watched as a test of whether Indian companies can build globally competitive capabilities in AI security, a field that is likely to become increasingly important as AI agents become part of everyday digital services. For Bosch, the deal shows how large corporations can spin out promising internal ventures while retaining a stake in their future. For India's cybersecurity sector, it signals growing ambition to build world-class capabilities in protecting the AI systems that businesses and governments increasingly depend on.