As enterprises increasingly deploy AI agents as workplace participants rather than software tools, a critical security gap has emerged: how to authenticate, govern, and control these digital workers at scale. Cybersecurity startup NewCore emerged from stealth with $66 million in seed funding on Monday to address that challenge, according to TechCrunch.
Funding and Valuation
The seed round was led by cybersecurity-focused venture firm Cyberstarts, with participation from Index Ventures and Evolution Equity Partners, TechCrunch reported. The investment values NewCore at $300 million after the round, according to the same source.
The Identity Challenge
NewCore co-founder and CEO Zohar Alon, who previously founded cloud-security startup Dome9 before its acquisition by Check Point, said the rise of AI agents convinced him that existing identity platforms were ill-suited for a future where software workers operate alongside human employees. "We know for sure that the scale and the complexity that those things [AI agents] are going to add to 15- or 20-year-old identity platforms are going to break them," Alon told TechCrunch.
The idea for NewCore began taking shape in 2023 while Alon was helping review the technology budget of a company that relied on an established identity provider. After seeing the bill, he assumed the customer must be satisfied. "I said, 'You must be extremely happy with them,'" Alon recalled. "He said, 'No, I'm not.'"
Platform Capabilities
NewCore's platform is designed to manage both human and AI-agent identities in a single system. According to TechCrunch, the startup argues that AI agents should be treated as first-class identities with their own permissions, lifecycle controls, and revocation mechanisms, rather than as traditional service accounts or machine credentials.
The platform uses a "split-key" architecture that divides critical identity credentials between the customer and the platform, an approach designed to eliminate a single point of compromise. NewCore also offers an "Agentic Skill" integration package for coding assistants such as Anthropic's Claude Code, OpenAI's Codex, and Cursor. This tool allows those AI assistants to access enterprise systems as managed identities rather than through manually distributed credentials. Additionally, employees can use NewCore's mobile app to grant, review, and revoke access for AI agents, providing what Alon described as a human oversight layer.
Market Context
Goldman Sachs last year tested AI coding agent Devin as a new employee, while McKinsey said earlier this year that 25,000 AI agents already work alongside its 60,000 employees, TechCrunch noted. These examples illustrate the growing need for identity solutions that can handle AI agents at scale.
Established identity providers including Okta and Microsoft's Entra have begun adding capabilities for AI agents. However, Alon argues those efforts extend platforms originally designed for human employees, whereas NewCore was built from the ground up for a workforce made up of humans, machines, and AI agents. "The traditional vendors give you an agentic way to deal with identity, but it's on the side — it's not integrated," Alon said.
Team and Traction
The startup has grown to more than 50 employees across the U.S. and Israel. Alon co-founded NewCore with CTO Amihai Neiderman, a former Unit 8200 research leader and founder of healthcare AI startup Nym Health, and CRO Erez Yarkoni, who previously served as CIO of T-Mobile USA and Telstra. NewCore is currently being used by fewer than 10 customers and more than 10 design partners, and expects to begin charging customers this summer, according to TechCrunch.
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