Cinder
YC W22New York City, US · Founded 2022 · 30 employees · Hiring · 12 known investors
Find your way into Cinder
1,844 people in our graph share verified history with the Cinder team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.
Javier Solterounlockedknows Glen Wise · together at Carnegie Mellon University (overlapped)
knows the team · via Facebook
knows the team · via Y Combinator
×3knows the team · via Phillips Academy
knows the team · via SOAS University of London
×5knows the team · via Middlebury College
Cinder provides trust and safety infrastructure that uses AI agents to detect and act on abuse, fraud, and policy-violating content such as CSAM, extremism, and adult material across online platforms. It offers a configurable moderation platform with policy-aligned agents, human-in-the-loop review, audit trails, and services like AI red teaming, data labeling, and managed operations for enterprise product and safety teams.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityEnterprise SoftwareSaaSB2BComplianceTrust & SafetyAIUnited States of AmericaAmerica / CanadaPartly Remote
Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W22)
Cinder was founded in 2022 by Glen Wise, Phil Brennan, Brian F, Declan Cummings, and Philip Brennan.
GW
Glen WiseinCo-Founder & CEOGlen Wise graduated from Carnegie Mellon and worked as a security engineer at Meta (formerly Facebook) for over three years, where he helped build community threat intelligence infrastructure. He founded Cinder in 2021 to address trust and safety challenges for other organizations.30 Under 30 2024
PB
Phil BrennaninCo-FounderPhil Brennan spent several years leading counterterrorism operations for the US government before joining Facebook in 2017, where he built out their community threat intelligence team. He later co-founded Cinder with Glen Wise, a former Facebook colleague.
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Brian FFounder
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Declan CummingsinCo-Founder and Head Of EngineeringPreviously, he was a security engineer at Facebook where he developed detection and analysis systems for threats including nation-state espionage, misinformation, terrorism, and child exploitation.
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Philip BrennaninCo-Founder
Investors · 12
AccelPalo Alto · $1.6M – $70M
J2 VenturesBoston
Mozilla Ventures
Radical VenturesToronto · $1M – $25M
Webb Investment NetworkSan Francisco · $500K – $750K
Y CombinatorSan Francisco · $500K
M12 (Microsoft's Venture Fund)reportedSeattle · $100K – $10M
OUTPOST VENTURESreportedAlexandria
Also in the syndicate · 4
M12Microsoft's Venture FundNeuberger’s Outpost VenturesPSP Growth
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements$41M disclosed across 1 of 2 rounds · 2022–2026
- $41MSeries BMay 2026 · 4 sources
Radical Ventures (lead), Accel, M12, M12 – Microsoft's Venture Fund, Microsoft's Venture Fund, Neuberger’s Outpost Ventures, Outpost Ventures, Pioneer Fund, PSP Growth, Y Combinator
Source ↗ - Undisclosed amountSeed and Series ADec 2022Source ↗
Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.
Founder mafia
3 people who came through Cinder went on to found or lead other companies.
Competitors · 7
by search overlap
TrueFoundry12 shared keywordsTrueFoundry provides a unified platform for deploying, governing, scaling, and tracing agentic AI and LLM workloads, including an AI gateway, model hosting, fine-tuning, and observability. It targets enterprise engineering and data science teams that need to run AI models across cloud, on-prem, or air-gapped infrastructure with security and compliance controls.
OpenAI12 shared keywordsOpenAI is an AI research and deployment company focused on developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) with emphasis on safety and beneficial outcomes for humanity.
LiteLLM11 shared keywordsLiteLLM provides an AI gateway that simplifies access to over 100 large language models through a unified OpenAI-compatible interface, with built-in features for fallbacks, spend tracking, and load balancing. The platform serves developers and engineering teams integrating multiple LLM providers into their applications.
Eesel10 shared keywordseesel AI builds AI "teammates" that connect to a company's tools and perform work tasks under human supervision, with autonomy increasing over time. The product targets support and enterprise teams and uses usage-based pricing tied to work completed.
DataCamp7 shared keywordsDataCamp is a learning platform for teams that teaches data and AI skills through hands-on coursework accessible via web browser and mobile app. It serves enterprise customers and development teams seeking to build technical capabilities.
Educative7 shared keywordsEducative offers online courses and learning paths in software development, machine learning, and technical interview preparation. The platform serves individuals seeking to develop in-demand technology skills.
Tech Policy Press7 shared keywordsTech Policy Press is a nonprofit media organization that publishes independent journalism and analysis on technology's intersection with democracy and policy. It focuses on issues including platform concentration, technology's economic impacts, ethics and privacy, geopolitics, and election integrity.
Companies competing with Cinder for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
In the news
Frequently asked questions
- What does Cinder do?
- Cinder provides trust and safety infrastructure that uses AI agents to detect and act on abuse, fraud, and policy-violating content such as CSAM, extremism, and adult material across online platforms. It offers a configurable moderation platform with policy-aligned agents, human-in-the-loop review, audit trails, and services like AI red teaming, data labeling, and managed operations for enterprise product and safety teams.
- Who founded Cinder?
- Cinder was founded by Glen Wise, Phil Brennan, Brian F, Declan Cummings, Philip Brennan in 2022.
- Who are Cinder's investors?
- Cinder's investors include Accel, J2 Ventures, Mozilla Ventures, Radical Ventures, Webb Investment Network, Y Combinator, M12 (Microsoft's Venture Fund), OUTPOST VENTURES.
- How much funding has Cinder raised?
- Cinder has disclosed $41M raised across 1 of its 2 known rounds.
- Where is Cinder headquartered?
- Cinder is headquartered in New York City, US.