/Companies

Cinder

YC W22

New York City, US · Founded 2022 · 30 employees · Hiring · 15 known investors

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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.

Also known as Cinder Technologies, Inc.

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W22)

Cinder was founded in 2022 by Glen Wise, Phil Brennan, Brian F, and Declan Cummings.

GWGlen Wise
Glen WiseCo-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
PBPhil Brennan
Phil BrennanCo-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.
BF
Brian FFounder
DCDeclan Cummings
Declan CummingsCo-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.
BF
Brian FishmanFounder
PB
Philip BrennanFounder
FP
Frances PattonExecutive Assistant
BM
Bridget MartinRecruiting
FI
Farhana Ismail
EP
Ellen Patton
AC
Alex CollinsPresidentformer

Board

SISara Ittelson
Sara IttelsonBoard directorInvestor at Accel

Investors · 15

Accellisted by AccelPalo Alto · $500K – $100M

How we know: Accel's portfolio page · a partner's Signal profile · board seat on SEC Form D · funding news · cinder.ai · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

MischiefreportedSan Francisco · $1M – $5M

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Vivek Sodera VenturesreportedSeattle

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Also in the syndicate · 3

M12Microsoft's Venture FundNeuberger’s Outpost Ventures

Funding

SEC filings, press & company announcements

$53.8M disclosed across 2 of 3 rounds · 2022–2026

▶$12.8MraisedDec 2022 · 30 investors · Other Technology
Rule 506(b)
Officers, directors & promoters on the filing
  • Philip BrennanExecutive Officer, Director
  • Sara IttelsonDirector
  • Glen WiseExecutive Officer, Director
Offering amount
$13.7M
Amount sold
$12.8M
First sale
Nov 2022
Incorporated
Corporation, Delaware, 2021
Federal exemptions
06b
Full filing on SEC EDGAR ↗

Source: SEC EDGAR Form D. Amounts as filed; amended filings shown once at their latest values.

Founder mafia

2 people who came through Cinder went on to found or lead other companies.

Related companies · 10

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Companies working in the same space as Cinder.

Legal entities · 1

corporate structure
Cinder Technologies, Inc.

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 in 2022.
Who are Cinder's investors?
Cinder's investors include Accel, J2 Ventures, Mozilla Ventures, Pioneer, Radical Ventures, Webb Investment Network, Y Combinator, M12 (Microsoft's Venture Fund) and 4 more.
How much funding has Cinder raised?
Cinder has disclosed $53.8M raised across 2 of its 3 known rounds.
Where is Cinder headquartered?
Cinder is headquartered in New York City, US.