Dawnguard

Dawnguard is an Amsterdam-based AI-native Security Architecture Automation platform that embeds security by design into cloud architectures from day zero. Founded in 2025 by CEO Mahdi Abdulrazak and CTO Kim van Lavieren — veterans from IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, and military cyber units — Dawnguard's platform enables organizations to design, validate, and ship secure cloud infrastructure before a single line of production code is written. The platform provides multiple starting points (text or image-based architecture generation), a powerful resource panel for cloud services, and visualization of resource interdependencies. It automatically validates architectures against global compliance standards including ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II, generates production-ready Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and continuously enforces security posture after deployment. Dawnguard's approach shifts security left from reactive patching and post-production fixes to proactive design-phase prevention — targeting cloud architects, security teams, and engineering organizations. The company raised $3.3 million in funding and has opened its platform to customers while establishing a US office. It operates out of Amsterdam and New York and serves enterprises seeking to reduce both security risk and cloud infrastructure costs simultaneously.