Scantist
Scantist is a Singapore-based cybersecurity company spun out of Nanyang Technological University that sells an AI Security Suite comprising PAIStrike (autonomous penetration testing), AIDefender (runtime LLM/agent security), and AppDefender (SAST/SCA/IaC scanning) to enterprise, government, and SME customers globally.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2015
- HeadquartersSingapore, Singapore
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Scantist does
Scantist Pte Ltd is a Singapore-based cybersecurity company founded in 2016 as a research spin-off from Nanyang Technological University, with co-founder Prof. Liu Yang anchoring its academic lineage. The company sells an 'AI Security Suite' composed of three core products: PAIStrike, an autonomous penetration testing platform built on a coordinated multi-agent AI architecture with Long-Term Memory and Metacognitive Reasoning Governance; AIDefender, a runtime AI security platform that uses an LLM-as-a-Judge approach to detect jailbreaks, prompt injection, and data leakage in LLM and agentic applications; and AppDefender, a unified application security platform combining SAST, SCA, and IaC scanning. PAIStrike's differentiator is full autonomy with zero human intervention, validated by 93.27% XBEN benchmark pass rate, 100% success on Level 3 stateful attacks, and a #18 global HackTheBox CTF ranking across 1,704 teams.
The company operates a hybrid go-to-market combining product-led growth (self-serve Basic at $149/month and Pro at $699/month tiers with publicly disclosed pricing) and enterprise field sales with custom contracts, SSO, white-label reporting, and SLAs. Distribution runs through direct web signup, Singapore's national pavilion at RSAC 2026, and channel partnerships with systems integrators including IBM, NTT, and ST Engineering, alongside government ecosystem relationships with the CyberSG TIG Centre, SGTech, IMDA, and the AI Verify Foundation. The customer base spans 300+ teams and 50+ active PAIStrike trials across APAC, with named logos spanning automotive (DESAY SV, CATARC, Carro), enterprise technology (ST Engineering, NTT, IBM, BIPO), and public sector (IMDA, NTU).
Scantist has raised approximately $7.34M in disclosed funding across rounds in 2017, 2019, and a 2021 $5M Series A led by GSR Ventures. It has twice won the CSA Cybercall Innovation Award (2020, 2024), achieved ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, holds the SG Cyber Essentials mark, and is recognized by OWASP as a recognized SCA tool. The firm employs 51-100 people and operates from 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent in Singapore, with active market expansion into the United States, United Kingdom, and China via recent partnerships.
Scantist firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Scantist
- Legal name
- Scantist Pte Ltd
- Website
- https://scantist.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2015
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- Scantist is a Singapore-based cybersecurity company spun out of Nanyang Technological University that sells an AI Security Suite comprising PAIStrike (autonomous penetration testing), AIDefender (runtime LLM/agent security), and AppDefender (SAST/SCA/IaC scanning) to enterprise, government, and SME customers globally.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Scantist industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Application Security Software
- NAICS
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Penetration Testing Platforms (PTaaS) (HDADAHAG)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Application Security Testing (SAST/DAST/IAST/SCA) (HDADACAC), Prompt Security & Injection Defense (HDAAAKAE), Responsible AI, Security & Privacy Platforms (Safety, Guardrails, PII) (HDAEANAG)
Keywords
Where Scantist is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Singapore
- HQ country
- Singapore
- HQ region
- Asia
Offices1 record
Markets served
Scantist business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- PAIStrike Subscriptions: Tiered subscription model for autonomous penetration testing platform. Basic plan at $149/month (2 tests), Pro at $699/month (10 tests), Enterprise with unlimited tests and custom features. Revenue from recurring SaaS subscriptions with per-test consumption.
- Enterprise Licenses: Custom enterprise agreements with white-label reports, dedicated support manager, custom AI model training, SSO integration, API access, custom deployment options, and SLA guarantees.
- AppDefender Platform: All-in-one application security platform combining SAST, SCA, and IaC scanning with compliance and license management, likely sold via subscription.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Basic - $149/month for small teams and individuals |
| Subscription | Monthly | Pro - $699/month for security teams and professionals |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Enterprise - Custom pricing for large organizations |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels5 records
Scantist product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Scantist sells an AI Security Suite comprising three core products: PAIStrike for autonomous penetration testing using coordinated multi-agent AI, AIDefender for runtime protection of LLM applications and AI agents, and AppDefender for SAST/SCA/IaC application security scanning. The platform is sold as a SaaS subscription with tiered plans and delivered via self-serve signup or enterprise sales.
Product overview
Scantist offers an AI Security Suite platform consisting of three core products: PAIStrike (autonomous penetration testing with multi-agent AI), AIDefender (runtime AI security for LLM applications), and AppDefender (SAST/SCA/IaC security platform). Together they provide end-to-end security from code development through runtime, addressing application security, AI supply chain security, and continuous security validation.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- PAIStrike: Enterprise-grade autonomous penetration testing platform using AI-driven agents with long-term memory and metacognitive reasoning for continuous security validation
- AIDefender
- AppDefender
Products and services
- PAIStrike AI-driven autonomous penetration testing platform that automates vulnerability discovery, validation, and exploitation for enterprise security teams, using a coordinated multi-agent system with long-term memory and metacognitive reasoning.
- AIDefender Runtime AI security platform that protects LLM applications and AI agents in real time by detecting jailbreaks, blocking malicious prompts, preventing sensitive data leaks, and securing agent-to-agent interactions and AI gateways using an LLM-as-a-Judge approach.
- AppDefender All-in-one application security platform that combines SAST, SCA, and IaC scanning to analyze source code for security flaws, inspect third-party dependencies for vulnerabilities, and evaluate infrastructure definitions for misconfigurations and compliance risks, with remediation guidance for development and security teams.
Quantifiable outcome
- 93.27% XBEN pass rate across 104 web attack benchmark scenarios
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use Scantist
Customer profileNamed customers14 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Scantist technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability7 records
Feature5 records
Scantist partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
14 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, minor and core.
- CyberSG TIG CentreflagshipS$20 million CyberSG TIG Centre supports Scantist and other firms presenting at Singapore's national pavilion at RSAC 2026. The Centre drives cybersecurity innovation and supports Singapore-based cybersecurity firms.
- SGTechflagshipSGTech co-organized Singapore's national pavilion at RSAC 2026 with the CyberSG TIG Centre, featuring Singapore cybersecurity firms including Scantist, AgileMark, and StrongKeep.
- AgileMarkminorFellow Singapore cybersecurity firm showcasing SME-focused solutions alongside Scantist at RSAC 2026. AgileMark provides dynamic screen watermarking for data leak prevention.
- StrongKeepminorFellow Singapore cybersecurity firm showcasing SME-focused solutions alongside Scantist at RSAC 2026. StrongKeep delivers an all-in-one cybersecurity platform for SMEs.
- DaoCloudcoreLandmark MOU signed at 6th Singapore-Shanghai Council Meeting to advance global Cloud-Native AI Security. Joint initiative for cloud-native security collaboration.
- ST EngineeringcoreStrategic partnership and collaboration at SGTech Partnership Innovations Day. ST Engineering is a major systems integrator in Singapore, and Scantist exhibited its AI-Driven Application Security solutions at their joint event with SGTech.
- IBMcoreStrong partnership with IBM as a major systems integrator partner for delivering Scantist's security solutions to enterprise customers.
- NTTcoreStrong partnership with NTT as a major systems integrator partner for delivering Scantist's security solutions to enterprise customers.
- PlexalcoreScantist is part of CyberBoost: Catalyse cohort under CyberSG TIG Collaboration Centre working with Plexal and UK-based partners to drive adoption of OSS security best practices and strengthen software supply chains.
- Nanyang Technological University (NTU)coreResearch partnership with NTU researchers Dr. Guo Wenbo and Prof. Liu Yang for studying malicious code in PyPI ecosystem and developing detection strategies. Prof. Liu Yang is Co-Founder of Scantist.
- AI Verify FoundationminorIMDA AI Verify Foundation member collaborating on AI governance and testing standards.
- GovTechminorGovernment technology partner community relationship.
- OpenSSFminorCommunity member partnership with Open Source Security Foundation for advancing open source security.
- AiSPminorPartnership with Association of Information Security Professionals in Singapore.
Scale indicators11 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights7 records
Scantist competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- AttackIQ: AttackIQ offers a Breach and Attack Simulation platform used by enterprise security teams for continuous validation. Comparable to Scantist in the autonomous security validation category, with a more mature enterprise footprint.
- XBOW: XBOW is an autonomous AI-powered penetration testing platform and the most direct competitor to PAIStrike. Scantist itself publishes a head-to-head comparison page positioning PAIStrike vs XBOW, indicating tight overlap in product category, target customer (enterprise security teams), and technology approach.
- Synack: Synack provides a penetration testing platform combining AI-augmented tooling with on-demand human researchers. Comparable to PAIStrike in the pentesting-as-a-service category, with a more established enterprise customer base.
- Pentera: Pentera is an established Automated Security Validation (formerly PTaaS) platform serving large enterprise security teams. Both companies target the same buyer (CISO/security leaders) with continuous autonomous pentesting, though Pentera has deeper enterprise install base.
- SafeBreach: SafeBreach provides a breach and attack simulation (BAS) platform with continuous security validation. Overlaps with PAIStrike in autonomous offensive security validation for enterprise security operations, with broader BAS scope.
- Horizon3.ai: Horizon3.ai offers NodeZero, an autonomous penetration testing platform widely regarded as a category leader. Direct overlap with PAIStrike in autonomous offensive security for enterprise teams; Scantist publishes a dedicated comparison page vs NodeZero.
Broad incumbents
- Checkmarx: Checkmarx is a leading application security platform with deep SAST and SCA offerings used by global enterprises. Overlaps with AppDefender in static analysis and software composition analysis for developer security teams.
- Snyk: Snyk is a developer security platform spanning SCA, SAST, IaC, and container security. Closely comparable to AppDefender's SAST/SCA/IaC combination, though at much greater scale and developer adoption.
- Veracode: Veracode is an established application security testing platform covering SAST, DAST, and SCA. Directly competes with AppDefender's SAST/SCA capabilities as part of a broader AppSec portfolio serving large enterprise developers.
Emerging players
- Lakera: Lakera is an AI security startup focused on LLM and AI agent protection (prompt injection, jailbreak defense). Closest emerging competitor to AIDefender in the AI runtime security category.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Scantist social profiles
Digital presenceScantist compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance3 records
Scantist financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Scantist leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Scantist funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds4 records
Investors3 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Scantist M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Scantist
What does Scantist do?
Scantist sells an AI Security Suite comprising three core products: PAIStrike for autonomous penetration testing using coordinated multi-agent AI, AIDefender for runtime protection of LLM applications and AI agents, and AppDefender for SAST/SCA/IaC application security scanning. The platform is sold as a SaaS subscription with tiered plans and delivered via self-serve signup or enterprise sales.
Is Scantist a public or private company?
Scantist is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Scantist founded?
Scantist was founded in 2015. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Scantist based?
Scantist is headquartered in Singapore, Singapore, in the Asia region.
How does Scantist make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. PAIStrike Subscriptions are the primary driver. The others are enterprise Licenses and appDefender Platform.
Who are Scantist's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are AttackIQ, XBOW, Synack, Pentera, SafeBreach and Horizon3.ai. Broad incumbents are Checkmarx, Snyk and Veracode. Lakera is listed as an emerging player.
Does Scantist have an API?
Yes. API access is available as part of the Enterprise pricing tier. The platform offers documentation for PAIStrike at dev-paistrike.scantist.io and AppDefender at docs.scantist.io. Developer documentation is at dev-paistrike.scantist.io/en/docs.
What industry is Scantist in?
Scantist's product category is Application Security Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDADAHAG, Penetration Testing Platforms (PTaaS), with a secondary code of HDADACAC, Application Security Testing (SAST/DAST/IAST/SCA). Its NAICS code is 54151 and its SIC code is 7372.