Seattle Startup Certiv Raises $4.2M to Secure AI Agents

A new cybersecurity startup from Seattle is stepping into the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence. Certiv, a young company focused on protecting businesses from risks posed by autonomous AI agents, has officially launched from stealth mode with $4.2 million in funding. The startup aims to build a new layer of endpoint security designed specifically for AI systems operating on employee computers.

Certiv was founded in June 2025 and currently has a team of nine employees. The company is led by CEO Jason Needham, a veteran of the Seattle tech ecosystem with a long history of building startups. Needham previously co-founded Union Bay Networks, which was acquired by Apple in 2014, and CloudCoreo, a cloud management platform later acquired by VMware in 2018. Earlier in his career, he also spent more than 12 years working at F5 Networks.

Securing the rise of AI agents

AI agents are becoming increasingly powerful. They can write code, read files, and interact with sensitive systems using employee credentials. While this automation promises huge productivity gains, it also introduces new security challenges.

Certiv’s technology is designed to address those risks directly. Instead of relying only on cloud or network security tools, the company installs software directly on employee devices — including Windows, Mac, and Linux machines. From there, the system acts like a digital gatekeeper between AI agents and the systems they attempt to access.

Every action taken by an AI agent is evaluated against company security policies. If an action violates those policies, the system blocks it before it can cause damage.

Experienced founding team

Needham is joined by two experienced co-founders. Paul Allen serves as CTO and previously held the same role at CloudCoreo before becoming a distinguished engineer at Broadcom. The third co-founder, Daniel Morris, is Certiv’s Chief AI Officer and spent seven years at Microsoft, where he worked on AI systems and developer tools.

The startup says the fresh funding will help expand its engineering team and support early enterprise deployments. Certiv already has several pilot programs underway with corporate customers testing the platform.

Investors betting on AI security

The pre-seed funding round included Aviso Ventures, a Seattle-based venture fund led by Andrew Peterson. Additional investors include Founders’ Co-op, Fortson VC, and several other backers.

Interest in AI agent security is rising quickly across the tech industry. Recently, Kevin Mandia, founder of Mandiant, raised $190 million for a new startup focused on protecting AI agents. Meanwhile, Israeli startup Onyx Security secured $35 million to develop enterprise tools for securing AI-driven systems. Even OpenAI has moved in this direction, acquiring cybersecurity startup Promptfoo to improve safety features around AI agents.

A different approach to AI protection

Certiv is carving out a niche by focusing on what happens directly on the endpoint — the employee’s computer or device — rather than monitoring AI behavior only after it reaches corporate systems.

By operating at this level, the company says it can detect unauthorized AI agents running on employee machines, analyze the full chain of reasoning behind an agent’s decisions, and enforce security policies based on the agent’s broader intent.

The company refers to this approach as “runtime assurance” for AI agents.

“Our fundamental belief is that you cannot control these new workers if you don’t live on the compute where agents actually run,” Needham said.

Although Certiv operates as a remote-first company, the team regularly gathers at the Foundations startup community space on Seattle’s Capitol Hill, where it continues to develop technology aimed at making AI-powered workplaces safer.

Also read : Taylor Soper to Lead Seattle’s AI House After GeekWire Run