Savi Security Launches AI-Powered Scam Detection App

Brothers Patrick and Ryan Coughlin, each with impressive careers in the tech industry, have launched a new kind of security startup. Savi Security seeks to protect everyday folks from the new crop of incredibly convincing AI-generated scams, whether they’re routed via text, emails, or phone calls. The company just raised $7 million in seed funding, and is launching its app for iPhone and Android.

The round was led by Acrew Capital, with participation from Magnify Ventures, TTCER, and Resolute Ventures. The inspiration for the company came from a horrifying incident involving the founders’ mother. About two years ago, Patrick Coughlin’s mom called him, distraught, saying she had just received a phone call from a man saying he had kidnapped Coughlin’s sister.

The scammer had accurately spoofed Coughlin’s sister’s number, her voice, and referenced the location of the Walmart she frequented. The Coughlin brothers’ idea was to develop a real-time intervention tool. They tested their idea, and the AI scam detection model they were building, by launching a free website called Scam Wise.

The startup is currently mostly using Google’s Gemini, but has built its software on an AI gateway, which allows it to tap other AI models as needed. On Tuesday, Savi launched a paid product, an iOS and Android app for consumers, that can screen texts, voicemails, and incoming calls for scams. Such features are available in a lot of different products, but Savi’s most impressive feature is live-call monitoring.

During a suspicious phone conversation, a user can opt to add the app’s live agent as a listener. Savi’s fees are $8/month, discounted to $63/year, to cover an entire family, with no cap on the number of users. AI has changed the conditions for “how accessible being a fraudster is,” Coughlin said.

“We’re creating fraudsters because we’re bringing down the barrier of deceiving people.” Savi Security’s answer is like a new generation of anti-virus-like software: one that uses AI in real time just like the bad guys do. The FTC said last month that people reporting online crimes collectively lost $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025, triple the amount in 2020. Research from 2025 by Malwarebytes reported that Gen Z was targeted more often with text scams than other generations, and fell for them about 25% of the time.

The Coughlin brothers aim to protect consumers from these increasingly sophisticated scams. With Savi Security, they are bringing a new level of protection to the market, using AI to fight AI. Why this matters: The rise of AI-generated scams has made it easier for cybercriminals to target consumers, with devastating consequences.