AI Agent Firewall Startup AIR Security Emerges From Stealth With $50 Million
AIR Security, a new AI-specific firewall startup, has raised $50 million to address the growing security risks associated with AI agents and their add-ons. The company’s research reveals that over 17,800 AI add-ons with millions of installations rely on untrusted external instruction sources, and that AI agents are increasingly connecting to internal systems and making decisions without adequate oversight. AIR’s firewall continuously monitors and evaluates these add-ons, providing a mechanism to revoke trust and prevent malicious activity.
AIR Security is emerging from stealth with a $50 million funding round, led by Sequoia Capital and Greenoaks, to address the escalating security challenges posed by the rapid adoption of AI agents. The company’s research highlights a significant vulnerability: a vast number of AI add-ons – representing over 6.7 million installations – rely on external instruction sources that are often untrusted. Furthermore, AI agents are increasingly connecting to internal systems and making decisions autonomously, creating a significant attack surface.
AIR Security argues that AI agents are becoming a fundamental part of knowledge work, akin to reading, writing, and using Excel, and that this shift necessitates a new type of firewall – one designed specifically to protect AI agents. The company’s firewall continuously monitors and evaluates every skill, plugin, and add-on across an organization’s AI agent supply chain, both before and after deployment.
AIR’s approach focuses on identifying malicious, vulnerable, or unapproved add-ons. It screens for external instruction sources, hidden behaviors, and typo-squatted packages masquerading as official developer tools. Crucially, the system allows security teams to trace every agent and workflow dependent on a compromised add-on and revoke trust across the organization. This process is continuous, automatically revoking trust if a maintainer pushes a malicious update or an existing integration is compromised.
AIR Security offers a marketplace of pre-vetted, certified add-ons, providing a safe route to expand agent capabilities without introducing unmanaged risk. The company was founded by Yair Saban and Niv Hoffman, with Ryan Knisley, former CISO at The Walt Disney Company and Costco Wholesale, joining as chief strategy officer.
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