ai risk today logo svg bl font
Menu
SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
ai risk today logo svg bl font
Menu

Venture Capital

Illustration of AI agents performing business tasks inside a corporate office environment

Palo Alto Networks Acquires Koi To Secure Agentic Endpoints

, , ,

The company said the acquisition will expand its ability to secure AI-driven systems operating autonomously across enterprise environments.

 

Palo Alto Networks completed its acquisition of Koi, a cybersecurity company providing endpoint security for all systems, including autonomous AI models.

The company said the acquisition is intended to strengthen its ability to protect endpoints where AI agents act independently, including systems that can execute tasks, make decisions, and interact with other software without direct human input. These systems are increasingly used in enterprise workflows, creating new security exposures.

Palo Alto Networks said Koi’s technology is designed to monitor and control how AI agents operate, including how they access data, interact with applications, and execute tasks across enterprise systems. This capability will be integrated into Palo Alto Networks’ broader security platform to provide visibility into agent behavior and enforce security policies.

The announcement highlights a shift in enterprise security needs as organizations deploy AI systems that can act autonomously. Unlike traditional software, agentic systems can initiate actions across multiple environments, increasing the risk of unauthorized access, data exposure, or unintended system changes.

Palo Alto Networks said the integration of Koi’s technology will allow organizations to track agent activity, apply access controls, and limit how AI systems interact with sensitive environments. The company said that this approach is intended to reduce the risk of misuse while enabling continued use of AI-driven automation.

Illustration showing the OpenAI logo pointing to the Promptfoo name with an arrow on a digital technology background representing OpenAI’s acquisition of the AI testing platform.

OpenAI To Acquire Promptfoo

,

The deal would integrate Promptfoo’s AI security and testing tools into OpenAI’s platform to help companies evaluate and safeguard complex AI systems.

 

OpenAI announced that it has agreed to acquire Promptfoo, a developer platform that provides tools for testing, evaluating, and securing AI systems used in enterprise applications.

According to an announcement from OpenAI, the acquisition would bring Promptfoo’s testing and red-teaming capabilities into OpenAI Frontier, a platform used by organizations to deploy and manage AI agents. The company said the technology will help enterprises identify vulnerabilities and evaluate how AI systems behave before deployment in production environments.

Promptfoo provides software that allows developers to systematically test prompts and model outputs, run adversarial security tests, and measure whether AI systems follow policies and safety rules. Its tools detect risks such as prompt injection attacks, data leakage, policy violations, and unintended agent behavior.

The platform has gained significant enterprise adoption. Promptfoo said its evaluation and red-teaming tools are used by teams at more than 25% of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 350,000 developers have used the software to test AI systems.

OpenAI said integrating Promptfoo’s capabilities into Frontier will enable developers to automate security testing and evaluation as part of the development process for AI agents, helping organizations monitor system behavior and document compliance with governance and risk requirements.

“Promptfoo brings deep engineering expertise in evaluating, securing, and testing AI systems at enterprise scale,” said Srinivas Narayanan, CTO of B2B Applications at OpenAI. “Their work helps businesses deploy secure and reliable AI applications, and we’re excited to bring these capabilities directly into Frontier.”

“We started Promptfoo because developers needed a practical way to secure AI systems,” Ian Webster, CEO of Promptfoo, said. “As AI agents become more connected to real data and systems, securing and validating them is more challenging and important than ever.”

OpenAI said the Promptfoo team will join the company once the transaction closes. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Dario Amodei, chief executive officer of Anthropic, speaking at a technology conference

Anthropic Raises $30 Billion In Series G Funding At $380 Billion Valuation

,

New investment round provides capital for the AI company to expand model development and infrastructure.

 

Anthropic announced that it raised $30 billion in Series G financing, valuing the company at approximately $380 billion.

The round was co-led by D. E. Shaw Ventures, Dragoneer, Founders Fund, ICONIQ, and MGX. According to the company’s announcement, the new funding will support the development of its AI systems, expansion of computing infrastructure, and continued research into model safety.

The company said the funding will also support investments in large-scale computing resources needed to train advanced AI systems and expand access to its technology through enterprise partnerships and application programming interfaces.

“Whether it is entrepreneurs, startups, or the world’s largest enterprises, the message from our customers is the same: Claude is increasingly becoming critical to how businesses work,” said Krishna Rao, Anthropic’s Chief Financial Officer. “This fundraising reflects the incredible demand we are seeing from these customers, and we will use this investment to continue building the enterprise-grade products and models they have come to depend on.”

Anthropic develops large language models (LLMs), including its Claude family of AI systems, which enterprises use for tasks such as document analysis, software development, and customer support automation.

The company was founded in 2021 and has positioned its research around building AI systems designed with safeguards and monitoring mechanisms intended to reduce harmful or unintended outputs.

The Series G funding round increases the company’s total capital raised and places it among the most highly valued AI developers globally. Anthropic said the additional funding will help expand its computing infrastructure, support ongoing research into AI safety, and scale commercial deployments of its models.

A startup founder standing in an office overlooking a river and bridge, representing a technology company focused on digital trust and cybersecurity

Outtake Raises $40M Series B To Build Unified Digital Trust Platform

, , ,

The funding round will support development of a platform aimed at helping organizations detect and counter AI-driven impersonation and identity threats.

Outtake, a digital trust platform that helps organizations protect against artificial intelligence-driven impersonation and identity-related threats, raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by ICONIQ Capital.

The funding round includes participation from venture firms CRV and S32, as well as a group of technology and security executives investing as angels, including Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft; Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks; and Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Holdings.

Outtake’s platform is designed to help enterprises establish and defend trust across digital interactions by detecting, investigating, and disrupting identity-based threats that span online surfaces. The company said the platform provides a unified protection layer that security teams can use across all digital identity vectors.

“We built Outtake because point solutions can’t keep up with AI-driven deception,” said Alex Dhillon, founder and CEO of Outtake, “Enterprises are choosing a unified platform for digital trust, and this funding allows us to scale alongside customers as that shift accelerates.”

Outtake said the new capital will be used to expand engineering, product, and go-to-market teams and deepen the capabilities of its platform to meet growing global demand. The company reported rapid growth in annual recurring revenue, enterprise customer count, and headcount in 2025.

WitnessAI branded cupcakes displayed at a company event celebrating the firm’s $58 million funding round to expand AI security capabilities

WitnessAI Raises $58 Million To Expand AI Security Platform And Support Global Growth

, , , ,

The funding would support international expansion and new product capabilities to secure enterprise AI systems and agents.

 

WitnessAI announced that it raised $58 million in a new funding round to support global expansion and the development of additional tools to secure artificial intelligence systems and autonomous AI agents.

The company said the financing was led by Sound Ventures, an early investor in OpenAI, Anthropic, and SentinelOne, along with participation from Fin Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Samsung Ventures, and Forgepoint Capital Partners. Funds will be used to expand operations outside the United States and accelerate product development focused on protecting enterprise use of AI. WitnessAI provides security and compliance tools designed to monitor, control, and reduce risks associated with large language models and AI-powered applications.

According to the company, its platform is intended to help organizations manage risks related to data leakage, unauthorized access, and misuse of AI systems, including emerging AI agents that can autonomously take actions on behalf of users. The tools are designed for enterprises deploying AI across business functions such as customer support, software development, and internal operations.

“AI adoption is accelerating faster than security and governance frameworks can keep up,” said Rick Caccia, chief executive officer and co-founder of WitnessAI, in a statement announcing the funding. “This investment allows us to scale globally and deliver the protections enterprises need as AI systems become more autonomous and pervasive.”

WitnessAI said the funding would also support hiring across engineering, research, and go-to-market teams, as well as the expansion of its international presence to meet demand from multinational organizations.

The company did not disclose a post-money valuation. It said the latest funding builds on prior rounds as enterprise adoption of AI tools continues to expand, prompting organizations to focus more on security, governance, and compliance controls for AI systems.

CrowdStrike, AWS, and NVIDIA logos representing an artificial intelligence-focused cybersecurity startup accelerator

CrowdStrike, AWS, And NVIDIA Select 35 AI-Focused Startups For 2026 Cybersecurity Accelerator

,

The eight-week program supports early-stage startups developing artificial intelligence-driven cybersecurity tools.

 

CrowdStrike, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and NVIDIA announced they selected 35 startups to participate in the 2026 Cybersecurity Startup Accelerator, a program focused on artificial intelligence-enabled security technologies.

The accelerator, run through NVIDIA’s Inception program, is a free, eight-week initiative running from January 5 through March 3, 2026. It provides participating startups with mentorship, technical guidance, and access to cloud and computing infrastructure to support the development of artificial intelligence-based cybersecurity products. According to the companies, the program is designed for early-stage startups applying AI to areas such as threat detection, identity security, cloud protection, and automated defense.

The selected startups were chosen from hundreds of global applicants based on their innovation strength, market potential, and the caliber of their founders. Participants receive access to CrowdStrike cybersecurity experts, AWS cloud services and go-to-market resources, and accelerated computing and AI development support from NVIDIA.

Daniel Bernard, chief business officer at CrowdStrike, said the accelerator is intended to support startups addressing the growing use of AI by cyber adversaries. “This year’s cohort reflects founders building AI-driven security capabilities designed to operate at cloud scale,” Bernard said in a statement.

Chris Grusz, managing director of technology partnerships at AWS, said the program is designed to help startups move artificial intelligence-powered security tools from development to deployment. “By combining cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity expertise, and accelerated computing, the accelerator is intended to help startups strengthen and scale their AI-based platforms,” Grusz said.

The program is scheduled to conclude with a pitch event during the RSA Conference in San Francisco on March 24, 2026. Five finalist startups will present their technologies to an expert panel, who will select the recipient of the innovation award. The selected company may receive investment from the CrowdStrike Falcon Fund.

elon-musk-wikimedia-cc-by-2.0.jpg

xAI Raises $20 Billion In Series E Funding

,

Funding round exceeds target and will support the expansion of AI infrastructure and products

xAI, the artificial intelligence company led by Elon Musk, announced that it completed an upsized Series E funding round, raising $20 billion, exceeding its originally targeted $15 billion.

The Series E round included investments from Valor Equity Partners, Stepstone Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Qatar Investment Authority, MGX, and Baron Capital Group. Strategic investors in the financing included NVIDIA and Cisco Investments, who the company said will support scaling compute infrastructure and building large graphics processing unit (GPU) clusters.

According to the press release, the funds will be used to expand xAI’s data center capacity, support the development of advanced AI products, and advance research initiatives. xAI noted in the announcement that its Colossus supercomputers now include more than one million Nvidia H100 GPU equivalents and that its Grok 5 model is currently in training.

xAI said the financing “will accelerate our world-leading infrastructure buildout, enable the rapid development and deployment of transformative AI products reaching billions of users, and fuel groundbreaking research advancing xAI’s core mission: Understanding the Universe.”

The company’s Grok product suite and compute infrastructure expansion were both highlighted in the announcement as priorities for capital deployment.

Rencore Extends Series A to $15 Million to Boost AI Governance Platform

Rencore Extends Series A To $15 Million To Boost AI Governance Platform

, ,

Rencore, a Munich-based cloud governance software company, announced an extension of its Series A funding to $15 million, aimed at accelerating growth in AI governance and supporting international expansion across Europe and North America. The funding round was led by European technology investor Hi Inov with participation from existing backers UVC Partners and Capnamic Ventures.

The extended funding will be used to expand the company’s AI and agent governance capabilities, grow its product and engineering teams, and scale go-to-market operations internationally.

The Rencore platform is designed to provide IT and compliance teams with deep visibility into how AI systems interact with business data, helping organizations detect and mitigate data exposure risks, enforce security and compliance policies, and control AI-driven automation. Rencore’s tools allow organizations to align AI use with internal governance frameworks and regulatory requirements.

With the new capital, Rencore plans to strengthen partnerships with systems integrators and managed service providers to help organizations implement sustainable governance frameworks for collaboration and AI, ensuring controlled and compliant use of AI technologies as adoption increases.

Nudge Security Raises $22.5M, Expands AI Governance and SaaS

Nudge Security Raises $22.5M To Expand SaaS & AI Governance

, ,

Nudge Security raised $22.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Cerberus Ventures, with participation from existing investors Ballistic Ventures, Forgepoint Capital, and Squadra Ventures.

The company said the funding will be used to support product development and expand go-to-market activities.

Nudge Security develops software focused on governance and security for SaaS and AI applications. Its platform is designed to provide organizations with visibility into the applications employees use, including AI-enabled tools, integrations, and associated user identities. The system monitors application activity and applies policy-based controls intended to guide usage and manage risk.

According to the company, its approach differs from traditional security models that rely primarily on network-level controls or static policies, instead focusing on employee-driven application adoption and use across cloud environments.

“The difference between AI apps and SaaS has all but disappeared, with most applications now incorporating AI capabilities and integrations,” said Russell Spitler, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nudge Security. He added that the funding will support continued expansion of the company’s platform.

The funding round comes amid increased enterprise adoption of generative AI tools and a growing number of SaaS applications used across organizations, trends that have heightened concerns around visibility, access management, and governance. Nudge Security said its platform is intended to help organizations address these challenges while maintaining operational flexibility.