Knostic raises $3.3 million for enterprise GenAI access control
Knostic raises $3.3 million for enterprise GenAI access control
Companies are increasingly adopting LLMs and other tools to create ChatGPT-like systems but with their own local knowledge. However, these systems might also introduce business risks, potentially exposing content outside of an employee’s need-to-know basis such as bonuses, sales revenue, and mergers and acquisition information
Knostic, a company providing need-to-know-based access control for LLMs, has announced that it has raised $3.3 million in pre-Seed funding. The round was completed by Shield Capital, Pitango First, DNX Ventures, and Seedcamp, as well as angel investors.
Companies are increasingly adopting LLMs and other tools to create ChatGPT-like systems but with their own local knowledge. However, these systems might also introduce business risks, potentially exposing content outside of an employee’s need-to-know basis such as bonuses, sales revenue, and mergers and acquisition information. Knostic tackles this by providing employees with everything they need to know without over-sharing - allowing them to do their jobs properly and per organization policy.
“From a misfiled payroll spreadsheet and a sensitive presenter comment left in a template, or even secrets inferred from legitimately accessible content, LLMs accelerate the discovery of harmful, and potentially dangerous information to anyone who asks,” said Gadi Evron, co-founder and CEO of Knostic. Co-founder and CTO Sounil Yu added: “Microsoft Copilot, Glean, and other LLMs are akin to a race car engine. Data is the fuel. But who would want to drive fast without brakes? We are the brakes.”
Knostic was founded in 2023 by Evron and Yu, each of whom previously served at companies such as Citibank, PwC, and Bank of America.
How was the idea born?
“In the past, we have both relied on system thinking and mental models for inspiration in our work. While we were exploring how AI could affect the future enterprise, we reached a conceptual breakthrough that the security challenge of AI adoption needs to be addressed through knowledge-level controls, e.g. business context, as opposed to age-old data-security capabilities. This breakthrough led to the founding of Knostic.”
What is the need for the product?
“ChatGPT has opened up a new knowledge ecosystem and enterprises are currently trying to grasp what that means for them. One of their major use cases is enterprise search, which provides a ChatGPT-like capability only for internal institutional knowledge. However, without access control, AI systems can’t be adopted - certainly not at scale. For example, an intern can ask a sensitive question, such as sales predictions, and receive the same answer as the CEO.”
How is it changing the market?
“The AI security market is focused on legacy data-level, or file-level controls. Our approach is knowledge based, driven by business context, which opens up the possibility for AI adoption at scale.”
How big is the market for the product and who are its main customers?
“The market is predicted to be $40 billion by 2027. While there is interest across the board, most current engagement comes from retail services, technology, financial services, and legal.”
Does the product exist already? If not - at what stage is it and when is it expected to hit the market?
“The product is currently in MVP, deployed in PoC with two customers. Our GA release is planned for the end of Q2.”
Who are the main competitors in this sector and how big are they?
“While the AI security market is growing rapidly, out of 300 executives, CISO, CDOs, and CIOs, none have encountered a similar offering. Some of the largest of these enterprises are working to build a similar system internally. We fully expect others to follow suit now that we are coming out of stealth. Even though the current competition is concentrating on other issues, we see ourselves competing in the AI security space.”
What is the added value that the founders bring to the company and the product?
“Gadi Evron and Sounil Yu are renowned cybersecurity experts, thought-leaders, and CISO community builders. They have worked together for over a decade and bring their industry experience and security expertise to the company.”
“As one example for each, as CISO-in-residence at Team8 Gadi created and built their CISO community to over 500 members, bringing them unprecedented access to the market. As Chief Security Scientist at Bank of America, Sounil led all security technology innovation, bringing a deep understanding of how to build and scale successful security products.”
What will the money coming in from the round be used for?
“Knostic already has over 10 design partners from some of the strongest brands in the world without spending on marketing. We are currently working on a sales pipeline exceeding $20 million, which allows us to be conservative in our fundraising efforts and focus most of our resources on building the product.”
