The rapid spread of AI agents across corporate networks is also increasing the number of startups working to secure these systems. According to Crunchbase and PitchBook profiles, there are at least two dozen companies in the AI agent security market. These companies offer solutions such as monitoring the tools used by agents, controlling the data they can access, detecting threats on the devices where they operate, and identifying unauthorized AI use.
AI security startup Reco recently expanded its scope after previously focusing on mapping and securing SaaS and AI platforms. The company’s context graph links agents to applications, people, accounts, and permissions, enabling security teams to see agents’ access and cut off unnecessary permissions. Reco co-founder and CEO Ofer Klein said companies are developing agents faster than they can track them. Reco found 21,000 agents at a Fortune 100 customer that the company was unaware of. At a large financial services customer, it also identified an agent set up by a former employee that could access Salesforce and share data with a domain the company could not see.
HiddenLayer CEO Chris Sestito said the costs and risks of agents used in production are growing rapidly, adding that more than 50 of its customers are running agents that interact with critical systems and sensitive assets. Cymphony said it identified approximately 85,000 files at a US public-sector company that had been made accessible to AI tools and agents.
Reco announced on Tuesday that it had raised $55 million in funding. The investment expands its $30 million Series B round from February, with AT&T’s venture arm, Forestay and Quadrille Capital also participating. The company’s total capital raised reached $140 million. Klein said the valuation had “more than doubled” since February and was in the “high hundreds of millions” range. Annual recurring revenue is at the “double-digit millions of dollars” level; the company expects it to triple this year.
Reco has more than 100 customers, and approximately 40% of its revenue comes from financial services. The company is integrated with more than 280 applications and says new integrations can be added within days. The new funding will be used for hiring, sales, partnerships and customer support.
Why it matters
Security approaches that limit visibility across company networks to human employees and traditional software can become inadequate as agents that can use their own tools and access different data proliferate. This forces security teams not only to block threats but also to continuously monitor which agent is connected to which account, application and permission; financial services and public-sector organizations are particularly affected because of their extensive data access. The emergence of at least two dozen startups in the market shows that the problem is not unique to a single organization and that a new layer of security is needed. However, the fundamental question that remains is whether companies can fully discover rapidly multiplying agents and control data sharing by removing unnecessary access in time.
Term: agent
An artificial intelligence agent is software that invokes tools and performs multi-step tasks to achieve a goal rather than producing a single response.