Ent emerges from stealth with $100M seed for AI-aware endpoint security
Ent, a workspace security startup founded by RiskIQ alumni Elias Manousos and Brandon Dixon (both of Microsoft Security Copilot fame), emerged from stealth on June 16 with a $100 million seed round led by Decibel Partners. Sequoia, Crosspoint Capital, Craft Ventures, Shield Capital, Felicis and In-Q-Tel (CIA's venture arm) co-invested, marking one of the largest cybersecurity seed rounds on record.
Ent's platform runs as a lightweight on-device agent that monitors workspace activity across applications, browsers, workflows and AI agents, then evaluates intent in real-time to prevent risky actions before completion rather than detecting them post-breach. The system uses specialized small AI models to distinguish legitimate work from insider threats, data exfiltration, AI misuse or policy violations, applying just-in-time interventions.
Ent is already deployed at Global 2000 customers across hospitality, financial services and defense. The funding reflects a market shift from post-incident detection back to prevention as AI-driven attacks compress dwell times from days to seconds. For security architects, this signals investor conviction that intent-aware reasoning at the endpoint becomes architecturally critical as AI agents proliferate in enterprise systems.
Sources
- Primary source
- businesswire.com
“Ent, intent-aware Workspace Security company, today emerged from stealth with $100 million in seed financing. The funding is led by Decibel, with participation from Sequoia, Crosspoint Capital Partners, Craft Ventures, Shield Capital, Felicis, and In-Q-Tel.”
- thenextweb.com
“Ent, founded by the duo behind RiskIQ and Microsoft Security Copilot, has emerged from stealth with a $100M seed round led by Decibel. For most of the past decade, the security industry quietly gave up on prevention. Breaches were treated as inevitable.”
- fintech.global
“Ent's platform is designed to identify and intervene in risky behaviour by both humans and AI agents before those actions escalate into security incidents. The company says it is already live with Global 2000 customers across the hospitality, financial services, and defence sectors.”