a16z Leads Seed Round in Neo for Agentic Endpoint Security

a16z Leads Seed Round in Neo for Agentic Endpoint Security a16z has announced its leadership of the Seed round for Neo, a startup developing security controls specifically designed for endpoints where AI agents operate with user privileges. Endpoint security is transitioning into its third generation due to AI agents executing actions and running with user privileges directly on endpoints. Existing security paradigms like EDR, DLP, and Zero Trust fail when unable to distinguish between human and agent-initiated actions. Neo is building autonomous, real-time agentic software control to verify whether actions originate from verified humans or configured agents. Neo was founded by Nick Warner, Shlomi Salem, and Eran Shirazi, bringing leadership experience from SentinelOne and EasySend. The Shift to Agentic Endpoints The endpoint security sector is entering a third generation following static antivirus and behavioral detection (EDR). The traditional assumption that a human clicks and a program runs has broken down as AI agents, such as Microsoft Copilot embedded into Windows, operate with identical user privileges to read files, run code, and call APIs. Existing security frameworks, including EDR and Zero Trust, falter because they cannot differentiate between human activity and automated agent actions. Limitations of Incumbent Approaches Incumbent platforms designed for the behavioral-detection era cannot easily adapt to attribute actions and intent between humans and synthetic agents without rebuilding their architectures from scratch. While many existing vendors will treat AI discovery as an added feature, the rise of continuous AI agent activity necessitates an entirely rebuilt security approach. Neo's Solution and Founding Team Neo addresses this paradigm shift by developing real-time, autonomous agentic software controls that determine whether actions originate from verified individuals or agents, monitor guardrails, and enforce policies against malicious or negligent activity. The company was founded by former SentinelOne executives Nick Warner and Shlomi Salem alongside Eran Shirazi, former co-founder and CTO of EasySend.

a16z 领投端点安全初创公司 Neo 种子轮融资 端点安全市场正从杀毒软件和 EDR 迈入第三代。针对 AI 智能体运行于端点所带来的全新安全挑战，a16z 宣布领投端点安全初创公司 Neo 的种子轮融资。 端点安全正在经历从静态杀毒（第一代）、行为检测响应/EDR（第二代）到智能体时代（第三代）的演进。 AI 智能体直接在端点以用户同等权限运行，打破了传统 EDR、DLP 和零信任基于人类直接操作的底层假设。 Neo 从底层重新构建智能体软件控制体系，在执行瞬间实时归因操作主体（真人或智能体）并自主执行防护规则。 Neo 由前 SentinelOne 高管 Nick Warner、前威胁研究主管 Shlomi Salem 以及 EasySend 联合创始人兼前 CTO Eran Shirazi 共同创立。 端点安全底层假设失效 前两代端点安全工具均基于“人类点击、程序运行、工具监控异常”这一模式。随着微软将 Copilot 深度嵌入 Windows 等普及举措，AI 智能体开始在端点以用户相同权限直接读取文件、执行代码及调用 API。现有的 EDR、DLP 与零信任体系在无法准确区分动作源自键盘前的人类还是代表其行动的智能体时，安全控制机制将面临失效。 Neo 的架构定位与应对方案 传统安全厂商难以通过打补丁解决这一问题，重新归因人类与合成智能体的行为需从零重构架构。Neo 专注于智能体时代的安全控制，核心逻辑是在执行发生的瞬间实时解答关键问题：该操作来自真实人类还是智能体、该智能体是否配置了正确的安全护栏，以及出现恶意或疏忽行为时如何处理，并据此进行自主拦截与处置。 团队背景与 a16z 投资 Neo 创始团队具备深厚的安全与商业背景，其中 Nick Warner 曾担任 SentinelOne 多项高管职务并陪伴其完成 IPO，Shlomi Salem 曾主导 SentinelOne 威胁研究逾 11 年，Eran Shirazi 则拥有 EasySend 联合创始人兼 CTO 的技术背景。a16z 认为此次向智能体端点安全的转变规模不亚于以往历程，并已正式领投 Neo 的种子轮融资。

[America](https://www.a16z.news/t/america) | [Tech](https://www.a16z.news/t/technology) | [Opinion](https://www.a16z.news/t/opinion) | [Culture](https://www.a16z.news/t/culture) | [Charts](https://www.a16z.news/t/charts) The endpoint security market is entering its third generation. The first was antivirus: static signatures, easily evaded, built for a world of known malware. The second was behavioral detection and response such as SentinelOne, CrowdStrike, and the EDR category they created, which watched process behavior instead of file hashes and became the standard enterprise defense for over a decade. In both of those generations, the assumption was that the endpoint followed a familiar pattern: A human clicks, a program runs, and security tooling watches for the process to misbehave. That assumption no longer holds. AI agents now run directly on the endpoint with the same privileges as the user they serve, reading files, executing code, calling APIs, and moving data between apps. Microsoft embedding Copilot into Windows made this the default configuration for the modern enterprise. The interactions on the endpoint have fundamentally changed and every control built on the old assumption (EDR, DLP, Zero Trust) breaks the moment it can no longer tell whether an action came from the person at the keyboard or the agent acting in their name. This is not a gap incumbents can patch. They built durable platforms for the behavioral-detection era, and reworking that architecture to attribute every action and intent to both humans and synthetic agents would mean rebuilding from scratch. Most will add basic AI discovery as a feature, but this new problem requires a complete rethink of what security means in the agentic age. Neo is built for this new generation from the ground up. Rather than attempting to retrofit yesterday’s approach, Neo is pioneering agentic software control for a world where AI agents act continuously, often outnumbering the humans they serve. Its core bet is that security has to anchor back to a few simple questions at the moment of execution: is this action coming from a real, verified person or is it coming from an agent, is that agent configured with the correct guardrails, and what happens when malicious or negligent activity occurs. Answering that in real time, and enforcing it autonomously, is what the tools out there today were never built to do. Neo’s founders are as strong as they come in security. Nick Warner scaled SentinelOne through its IPO in multiple executive leadership roles. Shlomi Salem spent over 11 years leading threat research at SentinelOne. Eran Shirazi brings deep technical grounding and prior experience co-founding and serving as CTO of EasySend. Together, they combine the commercial instincts, security depth, and credibility with top-tier security talent that this category demands. The shift from antivirus to EDR created category-defining companies. We believe this new shift is at least just as large, and arguably more urgent. We’re proud to have led Neo’s Seed round and to partner with Nick, Shlomi, Eran, and the rest of the Neo team as they build the security layer the agentic endpoint requires. *This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. Furthermore, this content is not investment advice, nor is it intended for use by any investors or prospective investors in any a16z funds. This newsletter may link to other websites or contain other information obtained from third-party sources - a16z has not independently verified nor makes any representations about the current or enduring accuracy of such information. If this content includes third-party advertisements, a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content or related companies contained therein. Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z; visit [https://a16z.com/investment-list/](https://a16z.com/investment-list/) for a full list of investments. Other important information can be found at [a16z.com/disclosures](http://a16z.com/disclosures). You’re receiving this newsletter since you opted in earlier; if you would like to opt out of future newsletters you may unsubscribe immediately.*