Backslash
Founded 2022 · 46 employees on LinkedIn · 10 known investors
Backslash provides endpoint security and governance for autonomous AI agents running across enterprise devices and infrastructure. The platform offers visibility, control frameworks, and real-time policy enforcement to secure AI agent activity without hindering organizational agility.
Also known as Backslash Security
Founders & leadership
Backslash was founded in 2022 by Yossi Pik and Shahar Man.
Investors · 10
Also in the syndicate · 7
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Backslash Security is an Israeli-founded cybersecurity company that builds a security platform for AI-native software development and the "agentic AI fabric" running on enterprise endpoints. The platform covers the full AI-driven development stack: IDEs, AI coding agents, Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, skills, hooks, plugins, connectors, prompt workflows and rules, LLMs, generated code, and governance controls. Rather than securing individual components in isolation, the company positions the product as end-to-end coverage of the AI-assisted software creation lifecycle.
The product is structured around three steps. Visibility inventories every AI agent, MCP server, skill, rule, hook and plugin in use across an organization, including tools installed under personal accounts, and produces a posture score and prioritized remediation plan. Governance applies centralized policies, secure configuration, granular contextual permissions and allowlisting or blocklisting of components, including approval gates before MCP servers, skills and plugins are installed. Protection monitors agentic activity in real time to detect and prevent prompt injection, tool poisoning, scope abuse, privilege escalation, data exfiltration, drift and anomalous agent behavior, and creates an audit trail of harness-layer events (prompt injection activity, MCP communications, agent network access and file access) for compliance reporting and forensic investigation.
Supported AI coding and co-work agents listed by the company include Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Claude Desktop, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Devin Desktop (Windsurf), Gemini CLI, Google Antigravity, OpenAI Codex, Kiro and OpenClaw. Backslash also publishes free tools, including an MCP Server Security Hub, a Skills Security Scanner, an agentic AI exposure assessment and Claw-Hunter.
Founding story
Backslash was founded in 2022 by CEO Shahar Man and CTO Yossi Pik, who met while working at SAP and continued to plan a joint startup after parting ways. Man was previously a founding team member and Vice President at Aqua Security and a Vice President at SAP; Pik was co-founder and CTO of Farmigo, a direct-to-consumer agricultural produce startup acquired by GrubMarket, and also a Vice President at SAP. The company states it was founded to protect the attack surface created by the mesh of agents, MCP servers, skills, plugins, connectors and hooks that call enterprise tools, read and write files and access networks, often under the human user's identity on the host machine.
Business model
Backslash sells an enterprise security platform deployed across software developer workstations and citizen-developer endpoints, engaged through demos and a 1-on-1 AI endpoint exposure assessment. Free public tools including the MCP Server Security Hub and Skills Security Scanner allow items to be vetted individually, while the same protections are applied across all endpoints through the paid enterprise platform.
Traction
The company states its platform is used by enterprises protecting developer workstations and end-user AI usage, and cites Watershed, an enterprise sustainability platform, as a customer via its Head of Security Chris Niggel. At the time of its 2023 seed announcement, Backslash said its product was already in use by leading technology organizations and Fortune 100 companies. Total disclosed funding across the seed and Series A rounds is $27 million.
Latest developments
On February 10, 2026, Backslash announced a $19 million Series A led by KOMPAS VC with participation from Maniv, Artofin Venture Capital and existing investors StageOne Ventures and First Rays Capital, following an $8 million seed round. Alongside the raise, Ron Zoran, formerly Chief Revenue Officer at CyberArk, joined the board of directors as an independent member. Funds are allocated to expanding R&D talent and operations, deepening platform capabilities, and scaling go-to-market in the United States and Europe.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Backslash describes itself as the industry's first security provider focused entirely on securing vibe coding and AI-native software development, and as a pioneer of agentic endpoint security. It contrasts its approach with legacy application security point solutions and general AI security tools, which it says lack software development context, and with EDR, DLP and network gateway products that do not interpret AI agent or MCP activity. Investor commentary frames the company as building a security model designed for AI-driven development from the outset.
The company positions the endpoint agentic fabric layer as its distinguishing coverage area: EDR sees processes but not AI agents or MCP traffic, DLP and network gateways sit on the network while agentic threats execute on the endpoint, and legacy AppSec tools inspect code rather than the AI infrastructure that produces and runs it. Backslash also emphasizes end-to-end coverage of the AI development journey rather than individual components, and pre-installation vetting of MCP servers, skills and plugins.
Technology
Backslash operates at what it calls the agentic fabric layer on the endpoint, where AI activity executes, capturing harness-layer events that the company says EDR, DLP, network gateways and legacy application security tools do not cover. It inventories and maps agents, MCP servers, skills, hooks, plugins and LLMs; rates MCP servers, skills and plugins for security posture and supply-chain risk; enforces centralized policy, permissioning and allowlisting; and performs real-time monitoring for prompt injection, tool poisoning, privilege escalation and data exfiltration, with traceable, forensics-ready event logging. The earlier platform generation correlated cloud context to code risk with automated threat modeling, code risk prioritization and remediation workflows.
Go-to-market
The company markets directly to enterprise security teams via demo requests and a 1-on-1 AI endpoint exposure assessment that produces an AI inventory, posture score and remediation plan, and uses free self-service tools (MCP Server Security Hub, Skills Security Scanner, agentic AI exposure assessment, Claw-Hunter) plus blog, whitepaper and threat-model content as entry points. Series A proceeds are earmarked in part to scale go-to-market presence in the United States and Europe. The site also lists a partners program.
Enterprise security and AppSec teams responsible for software developer workstations and citizen-developer endpoints where AI coding tools and agents run. Earlier positioning targeted enterprise AppSec teams securing cloud-native applications, with reported use by leading technology organizations and Fortune 100 companies. Watershed, an enterprise sustainability platform, is cited as a customer.
Geography
Backslash is Israeli-founded and issued its Series A announcement from Tel Aviv, Israel. It is scaling go-to-market presence in the United States and Europe with Series A proceeds.
History
Founded in 2022, Backslash first launched as a cloud-native application security offering for enterprise AppSec teams, correlating cloud context to code risk with automated threat modeling and risk prioritization, and raised an $8 million round announced in March 2023. The company subsequently repositioned around securing vibe coding and AI-native software development, and then around agentic AI endpoint security, covering AI coding agents, IDEs, MCP servers, skills and LLMs. In February 2026 it announced a $19 million Series A and added former CyberArk CRO Ron Zoran to its board as an independent director.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 3
launches, deals, and filingsSeries A of $19 million led by KOMPAS VC with participation from Maniv, Artofin Venture Capital and existing investors StageOne Ventures and First Rays Capital, to expand R&D and scale go-to-market in the United States and Europe.
$19M source ↗
Ron Zoran, formerly Chief Revenue Officer at CyberArk, joined Backslash Security's board of directors as an independent member alongside the Series A announcement.
Backslash announced an $8 million round led by StageOne Ventures, First Rays Venture Partners and the D. E. Shaw Group, with security-veteran angel investors including Shlomo Kramer, Ron Zoran and Brian Fielder, to build unified code and cloud-native security for enterprise AppSec teams.
$8M source ↗
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Backslashbackslash.security · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Backslash do?
- Israeli-founded security platform that gives enterprises visibility, governance and real-time protection over agentic AI on endpoints.
- Who founded Backslash?
- Backslash was founded by Yossi Pik, Shahar Man in 2022.
- Who are Backslash's investors?
- Backslash's investors include Maniv Mobility, StageOne Ventures, KOMPAS VC.