A startup using AI agents to keep rogue AI in line has raised $20 million.
WhiteMatter, founded in 2024 and formerly known as QuilrAI, has built agents that oversee what a company’s existing AI agents can access, do, and share.
The startup spawns one “guardian agent” for each AI agent in an enterprise, which ensures the original agent acts as intended.
Before a company lets an agent access files, use software, make a decision, or trigger an action, WhiteMatter’s agent checks whether that’s allowed. The so-called guardian also monitors outcomes.
Guardian agents scale automatically — when an enterprise creates a new AI agent, a new guardian agent pops up, too.
“Our existing stack wasn’t built for agents being the main actor in the story,” Vidit Arora, the startup’s 35-year-old founder and CEO, told Business Insider. “Organizations are going now from humans being the core actor to agents being the core actor, and our entire tool stack wasn’t built for that.”
Arora said that his company has helped customers transition from human-first to agent-first organizations. He says we’re “not even at the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to agent attacks and compromises, both from external and internal agents.
Agentic security has become an increasingly important topic as enterprises grant more non-technical employees access to AI agents capable of completing tasks. A recent string of agent-powered security incidents has pumped new urgency into the cybersecurity space that WhiteMatter operates in.
Other startups have pounced on the business opportunity in agent security. WhiteMatter, whose new name is a nod to the brain’s connective tissue, names Prompt Security, Lakera, and Protect AI as some of its competitors on its website.
The guardian agents don’t run on customers’ tokens, but rather on WhiteMatter’s self-hosted AI model and GPUs. The company charges customers a flat rate based on a techy version of AUM: agents under management.
Business growth is organic, Arora said, since companies continue to invest in more agents and therefore need more guardian agents. Current customers include Fortune 200 and Fortune 500 companies, such as the asset management firm Alter Domus. The company says it has 2.25 million agents under management to date, and has overseen more than 116 billion AI interactions.
Blumberg Capital led WhiteMatter’s $20 million Series A funding, and existing investors Crew Capital and Sprout & Oak also participated. Arora plans to use a big portion of the money to hire for go-to-market and sales roles, and expects his 80-person team to grow by 50% in the next 12 months. He also intends to use the fresh capital to invest in his research team.
Read the pitch deck WhiteMatter used to raise its Series A round.
WhiteMatter oversees the whole agent lifecycle.
The startup has a roughly 80-person team.
Many AI agents take actions they’re not meant to.
Guardian agents oversee every action an agent takes.
WhiteMatter measures AUM: agents under management.
Customers include companies in highly regulated industries, like healthcare.
WhiteMatter has governed 116 billion AI interactions to date.
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