Early-stage vendors are focused on providing secure identity and governance for AI agents and enabling agent-driven security operations automation.
Agentic AI startups to watch
While the mantra of tech startups has always been to move quickly as a way to disrupt less nimble players, the advent of AI and agents has significantly thrown off the typical startup timeline. Niv Brown, co-founder and CEO of Noma Security, a startup that provides security for AI and agents, said that many startups in the past “had an idea, spent a few years building it, and then educating the market about it.” But for today’s early-stage vendors focused on AI and agent technology, “they need to respond to the market much faster than most startups,” Brown said in an interview at RSAC in March.
[Related: Channel Has ‘Huge’ Role In Securing AI Agent Revolution: Top Execs At RSAC 2026]
As just one example, the industry’s focus around AI and agents could likely look very different just a year from now, making it a “crazy space to live in,” he said. “I’m having fun. But it’s crazy.”
Perhaps nowhere is this dynamic more evident than in security, which has been a focus of startup activity for years. The push for adoption of AI agents has brought a huge number of new cybersecurity startups to the market in a very short period of time.
Still, many of these new security startups focused on AI and agents aren’t necessarily built for the long term. Noma Security took a different approach. Brown said the startup has raised $132 million in funding to make the investments needed to build a larger company with a “home run” goal, including building a full-fledged research team.
“Transformations like AI don’t happen every one to two years, so I don’t know if I’ll ever have the opportunity to build an iconic company like this again in my time,” he said.
Importantly, Norma is also investing in building a channel-focused growth strategy, including hiring channel veteran Ted Plumis last month to lead this effort. Although the company is now only three years old, Brown said Norma is committed to driving all transactions through its partners. After all, “when we talk about building big companies, this is the only way to truly scale and scale quickly,” he said.
At RSAC 2026 in San Francisco last month, Noma was one of the agent AI startups that stood out by offering differentiated security capabilities while focusing on collaboration with channel partners. Key segments of RSAC’s agent AI startups include providing secure identity and governance for AI agents, and providing agent-powered automation for security operations.
Below are details on 12 agent AI startups you should know about in 2026.
Aenbit
Aembit recently debuted identity and access management services for Agent AI, with the goal of enabling enforcement of access policies for AI agents. The company said the move expands its Aembit Workload IAM platform, allowing users to control what their AI agents can access, whether autonomous or user-driven, and the conditions and accountability for that access. Key features include providing each agent with a unique verified identity (blended identity) that can be linked to a human identity, along with an MCP identity gateway to control how agents connect via the model context protocol.
aura scape
Aurascape recently announced the release of new tools to address large-scale agent security gaps related to Model Context Protocol (MCP). The new zero-bypass MCP gateway works with Aurascape’s AI proxy to not only enable governance around the use of trusted tools, but also provide identification of high-risk activities related to MCPs, the company said. Additionally, Aurascape’s Zero-Bypass MCP Gateway has the ability to reduce bypass risk during agent interactions, providing a single platform for both “protecting the AI agents that organizations buy and the AI agents that organizations build,” the company said in a news release.
command zero
According to Dov Yoran, co-founder and CEO of Command Zero, Command Zero provides an agent-driven platform designed to serve as the operating system for security operations centers (SOCs) and automate critical tasks such as alert triage and investigation. At the moment, “it is impossible for human responses to keep up with machine attacks,” Yoran told CRN. Command Zero can take human security analysts to much higher levels of effectiveness and productivity with an agent that triages and prioritizes all alerts, the company says. While security teams are “drowning in alerts,” Command Zero’s agent system can handle much of the “data grunt work” that takes up security analysts’ time, Jöran said.
Dropzone AI
Dropzone AI provides a fully AI-powered approach to dealing with alert overload in security operations centers (SOCs) and can improve security outcomes without human analysts, said Edward Wu, founder and CEO of Dropzone. CRN recently. According to Wu, Dropzone’s biggest differentiator is that it offers a “software-only” approach to addressing alerts using its AI SOC Analyst platform. He says this provides much greater consistency, scalability, and transparency compared to human-dependent methods. In particular, Dropzone AI is focused on channel partnerships with MSSPs and VARs, according to Shashi Naar, Head of Channel.
Mondoux
In March, Mondoo announced a new agent-managed vulnerability service that provides a “fully optimized” vulnerability management program through a combination of human experts and agent capabilities, the company said. According to the startup, the service analyzes vulnerability data from Mondoo’s platform and provides vulnerability monitoring and prioritization, remediation guidance and reporting. The Mondoo Agentic Managed Vulnerability Service is also “MSSP and channel-enabled,” making it a product that can be resold by solution providers and used by managed security service providers, the company said in a news release.
nagomi security
In March, Nagomi Security debuted a so-called new “operating model” that leverages agent-powered capabilities to replace current exposure management methods. The new model, Agentic Exposure Ops, provides an AI agent that can “assess vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, threats, controls, and exposure across assets,” ultimately determining which vulnerabilities may constitute a real risk, the company said in a news release. Nagomi said the service also runs continuously and can verify that fixes remain in place even as the IT environment changes.
norma security
Noma Security offers a so-called “unified” AI agent security platform with capabilities for continuous discovery, governance, and protection of AI and agents. According to the company, the platform provides a complete AI inventory by automatically discovering where AI applications and agents are built and determining what data and systems they can access. Other key capabilities include AI security posture management and risk prioritization, and AI runtime protection, Noma said. Noma Security announced in February that it was hiring channel veteran Ted Plumis as vice president of global channels and alliances to accelerate the startup’s expansion with solution and service provider partners.
Operant AI
At RSAC in March, Operant AI announced efforts aimed at building AI and agent security directly within the AI inference infrastructure. The initiative, called the AI Infrastructure Ecosystem Partnership Program, includes working with top AI infrastructure companies to embed Operant’s runtime defense capabilities for AI and agents “directly into the inference stack,” the company said in a news release. The move follows Operant AI’s Channel Partner Program launched in February, which focuses on enabling VAR partners to offer advanced AI and agent security to their customers. The program is led by Kat Mills, a channel veteran and head of channel partners at Operant AI.
prophet security
Prophet Security uses the Agentic AI SOC platform to provide a wide range of capabilities, including autonomous triage, investigation, and response with Prophet AI SOC Analyst. Key additions to the platform include the debut of proactive threat hunting (via Prophet AI Threat Hunter) and Prophet AI Detection Advisor for telemetry analysis and detection coordination. In February, the startup announced it was raising an undisclosed amount of funding through strategic investments from Amex Ventures and Citi Ventures.
sublime security
Sublime Security provides an agent-based email security platform that leverages AI agents to automate threat triage and quickly deploy the latest defenses to your inbox. The company’s AI agents include Autonomous Security Analyst, which provides automated investigation and triage of email threats. Sublime Security also offers the Autonomous Detection Engineer agent, which provides “new, customized defenses to combat emerging threats in hours,” the company said in a news release.
Vollon
Vorlon expanded its agent ecosystem security platform at RSAC in March, announcing two new products to enhance agent forensics and coordinated response. The new AI Agent Flight Recorder leverages Vorlon’s DataMatrix simulation technology to capture a continuous audit trail of all agent actions across applications and systems, the company said. Meanwhile, Vorlon’s new AI Agent Action Center routes prioritized findings to the appropriate human worker or system, while also providing step-by-step guidance for remediation, the company said.
zafran security
At RSAC in March, Zafran Security announced a new secure control plane for AI agents with the debut of Zafran Exposure Gateway. The product provides a central interface where all agents can get “rich exposure context, scoped access, and auditable action paths,” the company said in a blog post. The company says the gateway will enable organizations to operate AI agents while maintaining security and governance. After all, “with the right gateway, [agents] Responsibly and safely,” said Sanaz Yashar, co-founder and CEO of Zafran Security, in an interview. CRN.
