If AI agents are the new operating system, then AI add-ons are the new applications; and a new type of AI firewall is required to maintain security.
AIR Security is emerging from stealth with $50 million funding and a firewall, also called AIR, built for AI agents. The funding is led by Sequoia Capital and Greenoaks together with a range of prominent individual industry angels.
This follows AIR Security’s research that found more than 17,800 public AI add-ons (representing 6.7M installations) relying on untrusted external instruction sources. The firm also discovered AI Skills in the wild impersonating companies like Anthropic and OpenAI and designed to bypass security reviews and execute arbitrary code.
AI agents are increasingly connecting to more tools, data and third-party services; browsing websites, accessing files and emails and acting on behalf of employees. Their growing autonomy is problematic when influenced and directed by adversaries through poisoned content or direct compromise. This opens a path to data theft, fraud, or unauthorized access while providing little visibility to the security team.
AIR describes AI agents as the new operating system, with AI add-ons the new applications. “We’re entering a new era where using AI agents will become as elementary to knowledge work as reading, writing, and using Excel. Agents will become a fundamental part of how enterprises build, operate, and make decisions – unlocking entirely new levels of speed, productivity, and what’s possible,” says AIR.
Of particular concern is the new and increasing output from coding agents: Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and everything around them. Enterprises have started adopting these tools at an unprecedented pace. But they’re also afraid to deploy them without a seatbelt – and rightfully so, suggests AIR.
“Every enterprise has a firewall protecting its network. Now they need one protecting their AI agents. AI agents need a new kind of firewall – one that protects what enters their context,” says Yair Saban, co-founder and CEO of AIR. “Today, agents are autonomously installing tools, connecting to internal systems, and making decisions – and in most organizations, nobody knows what’s running, what’s trusted, or how to shut it off.”
Saban (CEO) partnered with Niv Hoffman (CTO) to found AIR in order to provide such an AI-specific firewall. They were joined by Ryan Knisley, former CISO at The Walt Disney Company and Costco Wholesale, as chief strategy officer.