AIR, a startup founded by veterans of Israel's Unit 8200 intelligence corps, is coming out of stealth with a $50 million funding round to tackle the emerging security risks around AI agents. As companies give AI agents more access to their systems, a nascent software supply chain is forming, with skills, plug-ins, and add-ons that let them interact with the internet. But this new landscape also introduces significant security risks, as attackers can poison the content an AI agent consumes instead of attacking it directly.

AIR's platform is designed to discover and vet the skills and add-ons that AI agents use, and block them from interacting with software or external sources that don't pass security criteria. The company also offers a marketplace of vetted add-ons and skills for AI agents. With its funding, AIR plans to expand its team and go-to-market efforts in the US and Europe.

The funding round, which was led by Sequoia and Greenoaks, is a significant vote of confidence in AIR's approach to securing the AI software supply chain. According to CEO Yair Saban, the company's platform is already being used by over 20 customers, including large enterprises in heavily regulated industries such as financial services and pharmaceuticals.

Saban argues that the current lack of oversight around AI agents and their software supply chain is a major risk, and that companies need a way to continuously vet the skills and add-ons that AI agents use. He believes that AIR's platform is well-positioned to meet this need, and that the company's ability to continuously vet the skills and add-ons ecosystem will be a key differentiator in the market.

AIR is not alone in this space, with competitors such as Noma Security, Zenity, and Astrix Security also offering security and governance tools for AI agents. However, Saban believes that AIR's focus on continuous vetting and its ability to work across vendors will give it a competitive edge.

The rise of AI agents and their software supply chain is also driving interest in areas such as LLM visibility and agentic SEO, as companies look to optimize their AI systems for search and improve their overall performance. As the market continues to evolve, it's likely that we'll see more innovation and investment in this space.

This article was written with the assistance of AI.
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