After an 18-month stealth period, AvalonX has launched a continuous, enterprise-grade penetration testing service designed for small and medium-sized businesses. The platform combines proprietary security AI trained on nine years of real-world attack and defense data with human expertise to identify potential attack paths before cybercriminals can exploit them.
Alpharetta, Georgia, USA, October 30 (PRNewswire)—AI security startup AvalonX today emerged from 18 months of stealth to launch its continuous, AI-driven penetration testing platform. Powered by a security AI trained on nine years of real-world attack and defense data, the platform enables small and medium-sized businesses to access offensive security testing—previously available only to large enterprises—without requiring enterprise-grade security teams or budgets.
Smaller organizations face attack vectors similar to those of large enterprises, but they typically have smaller teams, fewer resources, and fewer opportunities to test whether their defenses are sufficient. Many of these organizations rely on periodic penetration testing, which creates long gaps between assessments, while systems, software, and threats continue to evolve.
This gap between attack speed and penetration testing speed may leave these businesses exposed to risk. According to Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report, ransomware appeared in 88% of breaches involving small and medium-sized enterprises, compared to 39% in large organizations. AvalonX was founded specifically to bridge this gap by making continuous penetration testing—combining automated attack simulation with human expertise—accessible to small businesses through a monthly subscription model.
Large enterprises continuously test—they have red teams, consultants, and the corresponding budgets. A 50-person accounting firm or a regional manufacturer faces the same threats as large enterprises but lacks the resources to protect themselves. Most such organizations, if they can afford it, test only once a year, while attackers won’t wait eleven months to strike,” said Craig Goodwin, CEO and co-founder of AvalonX, who previously served as CISO at Fujitsu, Monster, and CDK Global. “We built AvalonX to give these businesses the same quality of testing I relied on during my time as a corporate CISO.”
AvalonX’s Artemis platform uses autonomous agents to test enterprise defenses as malicious actors would, identifying intrusion pathways and determining how far an attacker could advance once inside. The platform is powered by Aether, AvalonX’s proprietary 400-billion-parameter security AI, trained on nine years of real-world attack and defense data and supported by 60 billion dark web records.
Automated testing provides speed and scale, while AvalonX’s penetration testers add human judgment when needed. Potential vulnerabilities requiring expert analysis are evaluated by testers to ensure customers receive meaningful, actionable findings rather than a flood of automated alerts.
Despite the technical complexity, the customer experience has been intentionally designed to be simple. Businesses enter their domain and define the scope of authorized testing with AvalonX, receiving results the same day. No software installation is required for external testing; results are written in plain language with clear next steps. Findings are also mapped to SOC 2, ISO/IEC 27001, PCI DSS v4.0, and HIPAA.
Ridown Capital, an investment firm founded by Onecom co-founders Aaron Brown and Darren Ridge, has invested up to $10 million in AvalonX. Onecom serves over 65,000 small and medium-sized businesses, giving Brown and Ridge firsthand insight into the technological and security challenges these companies face.
“At Onecom, we’ve been serving small and medium-sized businesses for two decades, with over 65,000 customers today, and we keep hearing the same thing: they’re targeted like enterprises but lack the resources of startups,” said Brown. “AvalonX was built from the ground up for them—that’s why we support it.”
Their investment continues Brown and Ridge’s broader mission of bringing enterprise-grade capabilities to smaller businesses. Ridown Group’s portfolio spans telecommunications, cybersecurity, and e-commerce, generating over £500 million in revenue in the UK alone.
“Aaron and I have spent our careers providing enterprise-grade capabilities to small businesses at fair prices,” Ridge explained. “Craig and his team have done this in the field of cybersecurity. We’re proud to help bring this capability to businesses that have historically been excluded from such testing due to cost.”
AvalonX is led by cybersecurity veterans Craig Goodwin, Ricardo Valdes, and Ben O’Nion, who together bring over 50 years of experience in information security and technology.
AvalonX is now available for use. Businesses can sign up for a free initial trial at www.avalonx.ai.
AvalonX Inc. is an AI-driven offensive security startup headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, backed by up to $10 million from Ridown Capital. After operating in stealth for 18 months, the company officially launched in October 2026. Its Artemis platform, powered by proprietary Aether security AI trained on nine years of real-world attack and defense data, combines autonomous testing agents with human validation to deliver affordable, continuous, on-demand penetration testing for small and medium-sized businesses. Learn more at www.avalonx.ai.
Ridown Capital is the investment arm of Ridown Group, led by Aaron Brown and Darren Ridge. The group’s portfolio spans telecommunications, cybersecurity, and e-commerce, generating over £500 million in revenue in the UK alone. It includes Onecom, one of the UK’s largest independent business communications service providers, serving over 65,000 businesses.
