Cygrid Raises €2.66M to Stop AI Agent Access

The big picture: Cygrid, a Berlin-based cybersecurity startup, has exited stealth with a €2.66 million pre-Seed funding round for its identity-enforcement platform. The platform controls access to confidential information by continuously monitoring human, non-human, and AI agent identities.

Why it matters:

• Expanding attack surface: The rapid proliferation of AI agents within enterprises is widening the identity attack surface faster than traditional controls can manage, creating new security blind spots.
• Rise of identity-based attacks: Machine identities now vastly outnumber human ones, and a significant majority of cyber detections exploit trusted identities like leaked tokens or compromised agent providers, rather than malware.
• Unapproved AI agent use: A substantial portion of employees are using connected AI agents without organizational approval, posing significant risks to data security and compliance.

How it works:

• Continuous enforcement: Unlike conventional identity and access management (IAM) tools that grant access at sign-in, Cygrid continuously enforces limits, checking each action an agent takes and blocking or narrowing it in real time.
• Unified intelligence graph: The platform maps human, non-human, and AI agent identities into a single intelligence graph, correlating entitlements, actual actions, and acting parties.
• Proactive threat mitigation: This approach allows Cygrid to revoke forgotten tokens in seconds and stop risky AI agent commands before they execute, providing real-time control over identity actions.

The catch: The cybersecurity market, particularly identity and access management, is highly competitive, with established players and a growing number of startups focusing on AI-specific threats. Cygrid aims to be a European alternative to US and Israeli providers, but will need to rapidly scale its capabilities and go-to-market strategy to differentiate itself and capture market share in a segment where threat landscapes evolve quickly.

Key Facts

• Company: Cygrid
• Amount: €2.66M
• Round: Pre-Seed
• Investors: Atlantic (lead), D11Z, Boris Gorin, Andreas Bermig, Vlad Tropko
• Founders: Dmitry Kharchenko, Dekel Paz
• Sector: AI Agent Security
• Headquarters: Berlin, Germany