Agentic security is the billion-dollar challenge for some clever startup to solve
Cybersecurity investors say securing AI agents—especially non-human identity and governance—is a massive, underserved startup opportunity.
Investors from Merlin Group and Microsoft's M12 venture fund told The Register that AI security is being treated as an afterthought as agents enter production with access to critical data. They argue agentic identity, behavior governance, audit trails, and 'CrowdStrike for AI' endpoint security are ripe categories, comparing the opportunity to Okta, CrowdStrike, and Wiz. Founders are advised to build comprehensive platforms rather than point solutions, since enterprises avoid buying many tools.
- Agents are reaching production with access to critical data faster than security programs can adapt.
- Non-human identities and service accounts remain under-secured, worsening agent risk.
- Investors predict 'CrowdStrike for AI' and a next-generation Okta for agent identity.
- Differentiation and go-to-market matter more as AI lowers product-building costs.
- Tags
- agent-governanceagentic-aiai-securityidentity-securitynon-human-identitiesstartupsventure-capital
- Products
- Claude CodeCodex
- Organizations
- Merlin GroupM12
- AI models
- Dario Amodei
From the original article
5 min read at theregister.comHigh time to stop kicking the security can down the road, investor tells The Reg
By Jessica Lyons · theregister.com
A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.