Runlayer
20 employees · 3 known investors
Runlayer builds a trust and safety layer that enables enterprises to deploy AI agents and integrations across their organizations securely. The platform makes enterprise AI adoption manageable by providing control and safety guardrails between enterprises and their AI infrastructure.
Also known as Runlayer, Inc.
Founders & leadership
Investors · 3
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements$30M disclosed across 1 of 2 rounds · 2025–2026
- $30MSeries AJun 2026 · 6 sources
Felicis (lead), Khosla Ventures
Source ↗
Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Runlayer sells a single platform that combines AI enablement, security and control for enterprises deploying AI agents. The product has two halves. The "AI control plane" discovers shadow AI (unmanaged agents, MCPs, skills, plugins and client configurations), governs what users and agents can access and under which identity, budget, OAuth grant and runtime conditions, applies real-time security models that scan tool calls, outputs, intent and sensitive data before risky actions reach company systems, and tracks AI usage, cost and adoption by team. The enablement half provides a catalog of more than 18,000 MCPs plus internally built MCPs served through a governed MCP gateway to major AI clients, lets domain teams package internal APIs, workflows and knowledge into reusable MCPs, skills and plugins, and allows employees to describe work in natural language so Runlayer creates an agent with governed MCPs, skills, memory, triggers and scoped permissions.
According to the company's Series A materials, Runlayer supports the 5–20 AI clients an average enterprise uses, spanning IDEs, chat clients, vertical AI apps, independent agents and platforms such as Salesforce Agentforce, with identity, permissions, policy enforcement, audit logs and real-time visibility tied to every action. Static and dynamic security models provide full-session observability aimed at prompt injection, tool poisoning, output manipulation, exfiltration and intent drift, and a component called Runlayer Watch identifies shadow MCPs, skills, plugins, clients and unmanaged agents in order to route employees toward approved tooling rather than blanket bans.
Documentation describes three user classes: end users who access org-approved tools, skills and agents through the Runlayer Plugin or Agents surface; builders and developers who create connectors, skills and agents and can deploy custom MCP servers with Runlayer Deploy; and admins who assign roles, define policies and monitor sessions and audit logs. Access is enforced through separate platform-feature (FGA) and MCP tool invocation (PBAC) models. The platform can run as a hosted deployment or self-hosted in a customer's AWS account, integrating with Terraform and Kubernetes (ECS Fargate, EKS, Helm), and exposes a Hooks SDK and a Platform API.
Founding story
The company was founded by Andy (Andrew) Berman, Tal Peretz and Vitor Balocco. Berman told Fortune in June 2026 that he founded Runlayer ten-and-a-half months earlier and signed his term sheet the day his first child was born, motivated by repeated enterprise demand and by seeing many companies struggle with the same governance problem. Berman is a three-time founder who co-founded Nanit, an AI baby monitor estimated at over $100 million in revenue as of 2024, and Vowel, an AI video conferencing company that raised $17.8 million before being acquired by Zapier in 2023, after which he served as Zapier's Director of AI working with OpenAI and Anthropic. Tal Peretz led ML in the Israeli Air Force and built and launched Zapier MCP in two days, which the company says became Zapier's fastest-growing product. Vitor Balocco was a Staff AI Engineer at Zapier and speaks internationally on MCP security vulnerabilities and defenses. The founding team states it has raised over $200 million cumulatively across prior companies.
Business model
Runlayer sells a B2B enterprise software platform, offered either as a hosted deployment or self-hosted in the customer's own AWS account. Sales appear to be direct and demo-led (the site's primary call to action is "Book a Demo"), supported by a go-to-market organization that includes account executives, regional sales directors, channel sales, field engineering and forward-deployed engineering roles. Specific pricing and contract terms are not disclosed in the available sources.
Not disclosed. The company's CEO declined to share revenue figures as of June 2026. The platform includes AI spend monitoring tied to agent, token and model consumption, but no pricing structure is stated in the sources.
Traction
Runlayer says it signed customers including Instacart, Gusto, Decagon, Opendoor, dbt Labs, AngelList and Lemonade plus multiple Fortune 500s within roughly six to seven months of leaving stealth. Fortune reported more than 12 unicorn customers, expansion into financial services with a Fortune 500 bank monitoring over 100,000 employees across 200,000 devices, and that half of Gusto's employees use the product daily. The CEO stated the company is nine months ahead of the product roadmap presented to seed investors and has broadened from an MCP-focused product to a full interoperability layer. Total capital raised stands at $42 million. The company also listed 18 open roles across product, engineering, GTM and operations.
Latest developments
The most recent items in the sources are the June 24, 2026 $30 million Series A led by Felicis with Khosla Ventures, with proceeds directed to expanding engineering and go-to-market teams; a July 15, 2026 announcement of Runlayer's presence at Black Hat USA 2026 (Las Vegas, August 1–6, 2026) including executive briefings and an event at SpeedVegas on August 5; and a July 29, 2026 post describing Runlayer Agents running on open-source models served by Baseten inference. A company press release also announces litigation filed against Rippling in SDNY alleging trade secrets misappropriation over an AI product 'clone', with a preliminary injunction sought.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Runlayer describes itself as a neutral, cross-provider trust and interoperability layer between enterprises and their AI stack, contrasting itself with a standalone MCP gateway by adding catalog, identity controls, reusable capabilities, observability and agent workflows. Fortune reported that the agent-governance space is becoming crowded, with Wiz, Palo Alto Networks and Okta building competing capabilities; Felicis GP Jake Storm argued Runlayer is structurally different as a "Switzerland business" that no single platform vendor can own. Fortune cited Gartner projections that 40% of enterprise applications will include AI agents by end of 2026 (from under 5% in 2025), agentic AI spending on pace for $201.9 billion in 2026, and an agentic AI security market valued at $55 billion in 2026 and projected to reach $888 billion by 2035.
The company argues that most alternatives force a choice between blocking AI adoption and accepting uncontrolled risk, and that internally built MCP gateways expand into a much larger problem set covering tool-scoped identity, approvals, shadow-AI discovery and migration, and runtime risk. Runlayer bundles enablement, security and control into one model-neutral platform spanning agents, plugins and skills rather than a point solution, and offers self-hosting for customers who require it. Investor Jon Chu described it as delivering end-to-end what others do not; the CEO frames the product as a single pane of glass over all agent activity.
Technology
The platform is built around the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It provides a governed MCP gateway and catalog of 18,000+ MCPs, custom MCP server deployment (Runlayer Deploy), connectors, skills and agents with memory, triggers and scoped permissions. Controls include role-based administration, fine-grained context-aware policies, separate enforcement of platform-feature access (FGA) and MCP tool invocation (PBAC), runtime monitoring with session-level alerting and blocking, audit logs, and shadow-AI discovery. Security uses static and dynamic models scanning tool calls, outputs, intent and sensitive data to detect prompt injection, tool poisoning, output manipulation, exfiltration and intent drift. Deployment options are hosted or self-hosted on AWS (ECS Fargate with Terraform, EKS with Terraform or Helm), and developer surfaces include a Hooks SDK for adding enforcement and telemetry to custom agents and a Platform API. Runlayer Agents can run on open-source models served via Baseten inference.
Go-to-market
Runlayer positions itself as a model- and vendor-neutral "golden path" that platform, security and AI-transformation teams roll out to the whole workforce, connecting to a customer's existing identity provider, approved tools, MCP servers and AI clients rather than replacing them. Distribution is direct enterprise sales with demo booking on the website, supplemented by ecosystem partnerships (Anthropic MCP Tunnels, AARM, Baseten), conference presence such as Black Hat USA 2026 with executive briefings, developer relations and content marketing, and a channel sales function being hired. Backing from named operators at Anthropic, Cursor, Okta, Neon and dbt Labs is used as social proof.
Enterprises and high-growth technology companies rolling out AI agents across engineering, security, IT, operations and business teams, particularly where employee adoption of Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, Codex and internal agents outpaces governance. Named customers include Instacart, Gusto, Decagon, Opendoor, dbt Labs, AngelList, Lemonade, Jane and Homebase, plus unnamed Fortune 500 companies including a bank monitoring AI activity across more than 100,000 employees and 200,000 devices. Buyers cited in testimonials include CISOs/CIOs, heads of security, chief AI transformation officers and AI acceleration managers.
Geography
Headquartered in New York City, with the Series A announced from New York. Job listings are split between hybrid NYC/remote (US time zones), NYC-based, one San Francisco role, and fully remote positions. Self-hosted deployments run in customers' own AWS accounts. No non-US offices are described in the sources.
History
Runlayer was founded around mid-2025 and emerged from stealth in late 2025 with an $11 million seed round from Felicis and Khosla Ventures. In April 2026 it announced a partnership with AARM to secure enterprise agents; in May 2026 it was named to Rising in Cyber 2026 and announced Anthropic MCP Tunnels for connecting Claude to systems behind customer firewalls. On June 24, 2026 it announced a $30 million Series A led by Felicis with Khosla Ventures participating, bringing total funding to $42 million. Subsequent 2026 activity includes Baseten-served open-source model support for Runlayer Agents (July 2026) and planned presence at Black Hat USA 2026 in Las Vegas, August 1–6. A PR Newswire release from the company also references a trade secrets suit filed against Rippling in the Southern District of New York.
Risks & controversies
A Runlayer press release states the company filed suit against Rippling in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging misappropriation of trade secrets relating to an AI product 'clone' and seeking a preliminary injunction; the sources contain only Runlayer's characterization and no response or outcome. Fortune noted the agent governance space is getting crowded, with Wiz, Palo Alto Networks and Okta building competing capabilities, and that the CEO declined to disclose revenue. Fortune also cited a customer incident in which an agent consumed an entire annual AI-compute budget in a single weekend while running in a loop, illustrating the risk category the product addresses.
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.
Competitors · 3
by search overlap
Companies competing with Runlayer for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
Timeline · 7
launches, deals, and filingsBlog post states Runlayer agents can run on open-source models served by Baseten inference.
Runlayer announced a $30 million Series A led by Felicis with participation from Khosla Ventures, bringing total capital raised to $42 million. Felicis GP Jake Storm led both the seed and Series A for Felicis; Khosla partner Jon Chu led both Khosla investments. Proceeds are earmarked for expanding engineering and go-to-market teams.
$30M source ↗
Blog announcement of MCP Tunnels connecting Claude to systems behind a customer's firewall, in conjunction with Anthropic.
A PR Newswire release from Runlayer states the company filed suit in the Southern District of New York against Rippling alleging trade secrets misappropriation over an AI product 'clone', and is seeking a preliminary injunction. Date not specified in the source.
Fortune reported on 2026-06-24 that Runlayer launched out of stealth 'just seven months ago' with an $11 million seed from Felicis and Khosla Ventures; the company's own Series A post says it came out of stealth six months prior.
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
- Runlayerrunlayer.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Runlayer do?
- Runlayer is an enterprise AI control plane for governing agents, MCPs, skills and plugins across the workforce.
- Who founded Runlayer?
- Runlayer was founded by Andy Berman, Tal Peretz, Vitor Balocco.
- Who are Runlayer's investors?
- Runlayer's investors include Cold Start Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Khosla Ventures.
- How much funding has Runlayer raised?
- Runlayer has disclosed $30M raised across 1 of its 2 known rounds.