Manifold, a company building security infrastructure for autonomous AI systems, has raised $8 million in a seed funding round led by Costanoa Ventures, with participation from Cherry Ventures, Rain Capital, Modern Technical Fund, and angel investors including Joe Sullivan and Vijay Bolina.
The funding will support the development of its platform designed to monitor and secure AI agents operating across enterprise environments.
What The Company Does
Founded in 2025, Manifold develops an AI Detection and Response (AIDR) platform focused on securing autonomous AI agents at the endpoint level. The platform provides visibility into how AI systems interact with enterprise infrastructure, including access to codebases, production environments, and internal tools.
Unlike traditional security solutions, Manifold operates without requiring agents to be embedded directly into systems. Instead, it monitors activity across endpoints and applications to track how AI agents execute tasks, interact with data, and access resources.
The platform is designed to identify risks associated with autonomous execution, such as unauthorized actions or unexpected system behavior, while enabling organizations to maintain control as AI agents are increasingly integrated into workflows.
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Market Context / Industry Background
The rapid adoption of AI tools is reshaping how work is performed across technical and non-technical roles. A significant share of developers already rely on coding assistants, and similar tools are now being introduced for broader knowledge work.
These systems are not limited to generating content but can execute actions such as running commands, interacting with APIs, and modifying production environments. This shift introduces new security challenges, as traditional endpoint detection and response systems were not designed to monitor autonomous AI behavior.
In engineering environments, many of these activities already resemble patterns typically flagged as suspicious, leading to frequent exceptions in security tools. As AI agents replicate and scale these behaviors, the potential attack surface expands, increasing the need for systems that provide transparency and control over agent activity.
Founder / Investor Commentary
Neal Swaelens, CEO and co-founder of Manifold, highlighted the growing gap between AI adoption and existing security frameworks. He noted that developers are already using coding agents with access to critical systems, often without sufficient oversight.
He explained that as similar tools become widespread among knowledge workers, organizations will face increasing challenges in understanding and controlling what these agents are doing. According to Swaelens, the ability of AI systems to execute actions, rather than simply generate outputs, requires a new approach to security.
Growth Plans / Use Of Funds
Manifold will use the funding to further develop its AIDR platform, focusing on expanding its monitoring capabilities and improving its ability to detect and respond to risks associated with autonomous AI usage.
The company also plans to scale its operations to support enterprise adoption, as organizations look to deploy AI agents more broadly while maintaining security and compliance standards.
By providing visibility into agent behavior and enabling secure deployment, Manifold aims to support the adoption of autonomous AI across different functions without increasing operational risk.
About Manifold
Manifold is an AI security company developing detection and response tools for autonomous AI systems. Founded in 2025, the company provides an agentless platform that monitors activity across endpoints and applications, offering visibility into how AI agents operate within enterprise environments. Its mission is to help organizations adopt AI safely by ensuring transparency, control, and security at scale.
