# Ibrahim Alshamrani

> Ibrahim Alshamrani is the Riyadh-based co-founder and CEO of COGNNA, founded with CTO Ziyad Alshehri in 2022. A former Huawei Saudi Arabia security executive with graduate education in business and information security, he leads a company developing agentic AI security operations through Nexus and managed services. COGNNA announced a $9.2 million Series A in December 2025.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at COGNNA
- **Organizations:** COGNNA, Huawei, Communications, Space & Technology Commission, Mobily, National Cybersecurity Authority, Ministry of Interior
- **Education:** Master of Business Administration (MBA), King Abdulaziz University, Master’s degree in Information Security/Information Assurance, Georgia Institute of Technology
- **Known for:** Co-founded COGNNA in 2022., Led COGNNA through a $2.25 million seed round and a $9.2 million Series A., COGNNA selected for Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First in 2025.

## Career timeline

- **2021** — Identified as Chief Security Officer at Huawei Saudi Arabia in his published data-governance opinion article and a GISEC programme.
- **2022** — Co-founded COGNNA with Ziyad Alshehri; the company joined the inaugural NCA Cybersecurity Accelerator Program.
- **2023** — COGNNA raised $2.25 million in seed funding led by Impact46.
- **2024** — Discussed international expansion through Monsha’at; shared his entrepreneurial journey at the University of Prince Mugrin.
- **2025** — COGNNA unveiled Nexus at RSA, joined Google’s AI First accelerator, partnered with Dal and announced a $9.2 million Series A.
- **2026** — Published an essay advocating automated security workflows with human supervision.

## Achievements

- Co-founded COGNNA in 2022.
- Led COGNNA through a $2.25 million seed round and a $9.2 million Series A.
- COGNNA selected for Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First in 2025.
- LinkedIn lists Information Security Executive of the Year 2018 and CISO 100 recognitions from the MESA awards.

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — Published “The Post-Mythos World: Race against time and AI,” discussing automation, context and human supervision in cybersecurity.
- **2025-12** — COGNNA announced a $9.2 million Series A at Black Hat MEA 2025.
- **2025-11** — COGNNA announced collaboration with Google Cloud on infrastructure and enterprise security.
- **2025-09** — COGNNA joined Google’s AI First accelerator cohort and announced its Dal partnership.

## Links

- Website: https://www.cognna.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ibrahimis/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/shamrani

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ibrahim-alshamrani
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-21