Neo Secures $100M to Tackle Emerging AI Agent Security Risks for Enterprises
As enterprises increasingly adopt AI agents, a new cybersecurity challenge emerges: how to control and secure these autonomous software entities. Neo, a startup founded by cybersecurity veterans, has emerged from stealth with $100 million in funding to provide a solution.
The rapid proliferation of AI agents and agentic capabilities within enterprise software is creating a significant new attack surface that traditional security measures struggle to address. Neo, an "Agentic Software Control" company, has raised $100 million in funding to help organizations manage and secure these autonomous AI entities. The investment round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Craft Ventures and Merlin Ventures.
Neo's platform provides a real-time control layer that gives security operations (SecOps) teams visibility and governance over AI agents, AI-enabled applications, browser extensions, and even traditional software gaining agentic functions. This includes creating a live inventory of all software on endpoints, assessing configurations for risks, and providing real-time attribution to link actions back to human users or agents.
The company's solution aims to prevent AI-driven exploits by enabling granular policy enforcement, such as blocking risky tool calls, API access, and unauthorized data movement. This is critical as Gartner predicts that 40% of enterprise applications will feature agentic capabilities by the end of 2026, up from just 5% in 2025.
Founded by former executives from SentinelOne, Wiz, and Palo Alto Networks, including CEO Nick Warner, Neo is addressing a market where security teams are often unprepared for the speed and autonomy of agentic software. Their approach focuses on understanding what agentic software can do, governing its behavior, and securing its adoption without hindering business operations.
INTELLIGENCE BRIEF
WHY IT MATTERS
The emergence of Neo highlights a critical shift in cybersecurity, moving beyond traditional perimeter defense to address the inherent risks of increasingly autonomous AI systems. As AI agents become more pervasive, solutions like Neo's are essential for maintaining control, preventing data breaches, and ensuring compliance in complex enterprise environments.
WHO IS INVOLVED
Neo (Agentic Software Control company), Nick Warner (CEO and Co-Founder of Neo), Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Craft Ventures, Merlin Ventures.
MARKET IMPACT
This funding round signals strong investor confidence in the nascent but rapidly growing market for AI agent security. It underscores the industry's recognition that AI's benefits must be balanced with robust control mechanisms, likely spurring further innovation and competition in this specialized cybersecurity niche.
This story was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by TurkSpark editors before publication. Facts, figures, and names may be inaccurate — verify important details independently.
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