Neo emerges from stealth with $100M to control agentic AI; Gartner says 40% of enterprise apps will be agentic by EOY
<cite index="41-1">An agentic software control startup led by SentinelOne's former president emerged from stealth with $100 million to map the rapidly expanding ecosystem of artificial intelligence-enabled software.</cite> <cite index="44-2">Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners backed the Boston-based startup, with participation from Craft Ventures and Merlin Ventures. Built by former SentinelOne, Wiz, and Palo Alto Networks veterans, Neo gives SecOps teams the inventory, posture intelligence, attribution, and policy control to manage enterprise-wide agentic transformation.</cite> The company was founded in August 2025 and remained entirely in stealth until July 20.
The core thesis: <cite index="50-4">According to Gartner, only 5% of enterprise applications featured agentic capabilities in 2025, but 40% will by the end of 2026.</cite> <cite index="41-2">CEO Nick Warner said almost 50% of enterprise software is going to be agentic by the end of this year, and he believes this has led to faster velocity and greater interest in Neo's technology than anticipated.</cite> <cite index="41-3,41-5">Neo's AI agents automatically discover software, analyze skills, summarize intended functionality and compare those findings with actual behavior to identify malicious or deceptive software. Clients need to know what software exists in their environment, which apps contain agentic capabilities, what models they rely on, what permissions they request, whether they can train on corporate data and how they interact with other systems.</cite>
<cite index="42-3,42-4">Neo describes its platform as a control layer for the modern AI-driven enterprise, giving security operations teams inventory, intelligence, attribution, and policy enforcement across the sprawl of agentic software. Neo enforces its own policies natively rather than handing enforcement off to a firewall, proxy, or other third-party tool. Organizations can set granular, identity- or group-specific rules governing tool calls, API access, data movement, and agentic workflows, and the platform can block risky activity, malicious models, and out-of-bounds prompts directly.</cite>
For security operations teams: Gartner's forecast (40% agentic by EOY 2026) signals that agentic software control is no longer a future problem but a near-term operational requirement. Traditional endpoint security answers "Which process is running?" Agentic control must answer "Which AI agent can act through this browser, SaaS app, or developer tool, and what can it access?" Neo's $100M launch and a16z/Bessemer backing suggest investors believe whoever solves the visibility-and-enforcement problem first will own a foundational security layer in the AI-native enterprise.
Sources
- Primary source
- Neo Raises $100M To Give Security Teams Control Over AI Agents
“Neo, a Boston-based startup building what it calls an "agentic software control" platform, has raised $100 million in funding.”
- Neo Raises $100 Million To Secure Agentic AI Software Across Enterprises
“Neo has emerged from stealth with $100 million in funding to build security and control infrastructure for agentic software.”
- Neo Raised $100 Million to Put a Bouncer on Your AI Agents
“Boston cybersecurity startup Neo raised $100 million to secure AI agents with endpoint controls, software inventory, and real-time policy enforcement.”