Neo, founded by veterans from SentinelOne, Wiz, and Palo Alto Networks, has emerged from stealth with $100 million in backing from Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, and others to develop a real-time control platform for managing agentic AI applications within enterprises.
- Neo raised $100M to create a control layer for autonomous AI in enterprises
- Agentic AI apps expected to rise from 5% in 2025 to 40% in 2026
- Platform enforces real-time policy on AI agent actions across software
What happened
Neo recently came out of stealth mode with $100 million in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners, alongside Craft Ventures and Merlin Ventures. The company is built by seasoned executives from cybersecurity firms SentinelOne, Wiz, and Palo Alto Networks. It aims to provide a real-time control layer specifically designed for agentic AI software running in enterprise environments.
This announcement coincides with a significant industry shift where AI agents — software that can autonomously reason, act, and chain workflows with user permissions — are increasingly embedded into browsers, developer tools, SaaS platforms, and legacy applications. The growth of these AI-empowered applications has outpaced the ability of security teams to monitor and control them effectively.
Why it matters
Agentic AI software is becoming a major part of enterprise application ecosystems, projected to expand from 5% in 2025 to 40% by the end of 2026. This shift introduces new security challenges because traditional enterprise security models were designed for predictable, deterministic applications controlled by human users rather than autonomous AI agents with the ability to execute complex actions independently.
Neo’s platform enables security operations teams to obtain a comprehensive inventory of AI agents and agentic-enabled applications running across their networks. The system scores each agent based on capabilities and risk, tracks their actions to the responsible user or agent, and enforces policies proactively to block high-risk activities. This fills a crucial gap in enterprise security by managing risks posed by AI that acts autonomously within approved software.
What to watch next
Neo’s success will likely hinge on whether it can establish itself as the foundational control layer for autonomous AI in enterprise software before competitors consolidate the market. Similar companies like Straiker and NewCore are also racing to address agentic AI security, with approaches focused on risk management and identity verification respectively, but Neo bets the bigger opportunity lies in control enforcement.
With $100 million in seed funding, Neo is positioned to rapidly advance its platform and capture significant market share as agentic AI use explodes in enterprises. Industry watchers should track how Neo’s technology integrates with existing security infrastructure and how enterprises adapt their security strategies to handle an AI-driven software ecosystem.