Pillar Security, an emerging artificial intelligence (AI) security startup, has raised $9 million in seed funding to fuel its ambitious growth. The company will channel these funds into advancing its research and development (R&D) efforts and scaling its go-to-market strategy. This investment signals a growing awareness in the tech community: traditional cybersecurity tools cannot protect today’s AI-driven software.
Founded with a bold mission to redefine application security in the era of intelligent, autonomous systems, Pillar Security has stepped forward with a revolutionary approach. CEO and Co-founder Dor Sarig emphasizes the unique challenges AI introduces. In a press release on April 16, Sarig stated, “Software has gained agency and data itself has become executable.” He added that Pillar’s security platform addresses this new paradigm, offering protection tailored to AI-related risks.
The Growing Threat Landscape for AI Systems
As companies increasingly embed AI into core business functions, the threat surface expands. Unlike static, rules-based software, modern AI agents operate with autonomy. They learn, adapt, and make decisions dynamically. This agentic nature gives AI powerful capabilities, but it also introduces vulnerabilities unlike anything seen in conventional applications.
AI systems face threats like evasion attacks, where bad actors manipulate inputs to mislead models, and data poisoning, where malicious data corrupts training sets. Additionally, data privacy risks and intellectual property (IP) leakage now rank among the top concerns for organizations deploying AI. Pillar Security addresses these emerging risks head-on.
Pillar’s Technology: Built for the Intelligence Age
Pillar Security didn’t build its platform as a patchwork solution. Instead, the company designed it from the ground up to support intelligent, AI-integrated systems. The platform fits seamlessly into an organization’s existing tech stack. It integrates with code repositories, AI/ML platforms, and data infrastructures. This integration allows Pillar to automatically map all AI-related assets, providing full visibility into where risks may lurk.
Once integrated, the platform tests AI models for potential failures. It also deploys proactive guardrails to mitigate known threats. By automating this process, Pillar helps organizations stay ahead of attackers rather than simply reacting to breaches after they happen.
Sarig stated, “Pillar’s technology, backed by real-world AI threat intelligence, is built with this understanding, delivering a new class of protection designed explicitly for AI-related security risks.” His message is clear: businesses can no longer rely on legacy security models in an age dominated by intelligent, autonomous software.
Backing from Strategic Investors
Shield Capital led Pillar’s seed funding round. The venture capital firm specializes in backing defense, security, and enterprise technology startups. Elias Manousos, lead investor at Shield Capital, praised Pillar’s forward-thinking approach.
“Pillar understands that it takes more than incremental improvements to secure software at a time when more agentic AI solutions are being deployed within businesses and the threat surface is expanding,” Manousos said. “Their visionary approach sets a new standard for how organizations secure and manage intelligent systems.”
This endorsement from an experienced security investor highlights Pillar’s potential to transform how enterprises think about cybersecurity in the AI era.
Agentic AI: The Next Evolution of Automation
Agentic AI doesn’t operate like legacy automation tools. Where traditional bots follow strict rules and limited pathways, AI agents possess autonomy. They understand goals, generate responses, and make decisions to complete tasks. These capabilities unlock massive productivity gains, but they also introduce risks.
George Westerman, senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, explained how business leaders should approach this shift. In a recent PYMNTS report, he advised companies to treat agentic AI like any other disruptive technology. Leaders must evaluate which processes benefit from automation, measure cost savings, assess the impact on performance, and manage associated risks — especially financial and reputational ones.
Pillar Security addresses exactly these risks. The platform ensures companies can deploy AI confidently, knowing that they have protections in place to prevent system failures, data breaches, or intellectual property theft.
Demand for AI Security Is Surging
The cybersecurity landscape is shifting rapidly. A PYMNTS Intelligence report revealed that 55% of chief operating officers (COOs) have already implemented AI-based automated cybersecurity management systems. This marks a threefold increase in just a few months. As adoption accelerates, the demand for specialized security tools will only grow.
Pillar Security sits at the intersection of two of the most important trends in tech today: the rise of generative AI and the urgent need for cybersecurity tailored to intelligent systems. With the new funding in place, Pillar plans to deepen its R&D capabilities, enhancing its core technology to address even more complex attack vectors.
A Vision Rooted in the Future
Pillar doesn’t simply aim to patch today’s problems. The company envisions a future where software no longer waits for human commands. Instead, applications act on their own, interpret data, and execute actions in real time. In this world, traditional firewalls, virus scanners, and code scans fall short. Security must evolve to understand behavior, context, and intent — exactly what Pillar delivers.
Sarig calls this shift the dawn of the “Intelligence Age.” And he’s not alone. Investors, security experts, and enterprise leaders increasingly recognize that intelligent software requires intelligent security.
By building technology that maps, tests, and fortifies AI from within, Pillar has positioned itself as a foundational layer in the modern software stack. Organizations no longer need to fear what they can’t see or understand. With Pillar, they gain clarity, control, and confidence in their AI deployments.
Looking Ahead
With $9 million in fresh capital, a clear product-market fit, and growing demand, Pillar Security is poised for a breakout year. The company will expand its workforce, invest in cutting-edge threat research, and scale its sales and customer success teams. These moves will help it serve a growing roster of enterprise clients who need AI-specific security today — not tomorrow.
The future of AI is undeniably agentic. As businesses hand more control to intelligent systems, security must evolve with equal urgency. Pillar Security understands this reality and has built a platform to meet it head-on.
In a world where data thinks, software acts, and threats constantly evolve, Pillar offers what organizations need most: protection without compromise.