Helmet Security provides an end-to-end platform that secures agentic AI and MCP infrastructure by discovering, monitoring, and governing AI-to-AI communications. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Helmet Security co-founder and CEO Fred Kneip to learn more.
Fred Kneip’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Kneip said:
“I’ve spent my career focused on how risk evolves as technology changes, and how quickly new risk surfaces appear when adoption outpaces visibility. After holding several senior management roles at both Bridgewater Associates and McKinsey & Co., I had a new outlook on how I think about risk, decision-making, and how organizations manage uncertainty. This led me to start CyberGRX, a company solving third-party cyber risk at scale. Our platform helped enterprises understand and manage vendor risk in a way that matched how modern ecosystems operate. After 8 years, CyberGRX was acquired by ProcessUnity in the summer of 2023.”
“But what that experience reinforced is the fact that risk doesn’t stand still. It shifts to whatever is new, fast-moving, and widely adopted. Today, that’s AI, and especially agentic AI. When I was introduced to Helmet Security’s co-founder Kaushik and saw the technology, I immediately recognized both the opportunity and the security gap. And I was eager to jump in. Helmet exists because agentic AI is expanding the attack surface, and organizations need a security model built for what comes next, not what worked last decade.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Kneip shared:
“Helmet started as a side project when Kaushik built his first MCP server and realized agentic AI was about to let LLMs talk directly to internal enterprise systems (databases, Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.). That “wow” moment quickly turned into a security wake-up call: unmonitored access, unbounded behavior, malicious injections, and the obvious tension between builders moving fast and CISOs needing visibility and control.”
“The first product idea was a scanner for MCP server code to catch hidden or unsafe behavior, but the vision expanded into something bigger. Today, Helmet is a full lifecycle platform that helps companies run agentic AI in a governed, sanctioned way while also revealing what’s running outside approved controls.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Kneip reflected:
“There was a moment early on where it really hit me that we weren’t just building another security tool, but were helping to define what security needs to look like in an agentic world. When you feel that shift, and you see companies leaning in because they know this problem is coming fast, it’s hard not to get excited. That’s been the most memorable part so far, realizing we’re building something that matters at exactly the right time.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Kneip explained:
“The Helmet Platform is built around three core capabilities: discovery, monitoring, and management. Discovery automatically scans to identify every AI agent, MCP server, and tool connection and bring them into a governed, managed state. Monitoring continuously observes and logs traffic across all agentic connections to provide real-time visibility into agent activity. Management enables structured access policies, including the ability to identify and block out-of-policy or noncompliant connections.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently. And how did you overcome them? Kneip acknowledged:
“One of the biggest challenges is that agentic AI security is a brand-new category. For a lot of teams, it can feel out of reach. The technology is moving fast, the attack surface is unfamiliar, and there isn’t a mature playbook yet. We have worked extremely closely with design partners to translate what sounded like an abstract future into something concrete. Our focus has been to make the category practical, giving security teams visibility and governance they can implement immediately even as the technology evolves.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Kneip noted:
“We launched with a clear focus on securing MCP servers, because that’s one of the earliest and most visible connectivity layers for agentic AI. Since then, our evolution has been about expanding the platform beyond MCP to secure the broader universe of agentic connectivity as it emerges. That work is actively underway, and we’re investing heavily in engineering talent to move faster and build ahead of the curve.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Kneip cited:
“Raising our $9M seed round and launching from stealth was a major milestone, but the strongest signal so far has been customer traction. We’ve been fortunate to see exceptionally strong conversion with early prospects. It’s the kind of response that’s rare for an entirely new category. That level of demand has been clear confirmation that agentic AI is creating a real security gap, and that enterprises want a practical way to get visibility and control now.”
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? Kneip highlighted:
“We’re not naming customers yet, but early deployments are showing two clear wins. First, Helmet helps teams quickly understand the scope of agentic AI in their environment, such as what MCP servers and AI agents exist, what’s connected, and where the risk surface is expanding. Second, it gives them a practical way to enforce policy, from basic hygiene guardrails to tighter controls that can revoke access or permissions when a connection falls out of policy. The consistent feedback is that visibility plus enforcement is what makes secure adoption possible.”
Funding/Revenue
Are you able to discuss funding and/or revenue metrics? Kneip revealed:
“We recently closed a $9 million seed round, led by SYN Ventures and WhiteRabbit Ventures, which gives us the runway to accelerate product development and growth. While we’re still early, we’re seeing strong customer pull, and based on the pipeline and what we’re building, we believe we’re on a path to profitability by the end of next year.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Kneip assessed:
“It’s early to pin down a single TAM because agentic AI security is a new category, but it’s not a small market. We’re going after a large and fast-growing opportunity that sits within existing enterprise security spend, with new budget emerging as agents become mainstream. Most security practitioners we are speaking with are seeing budget growth in AI security, even when other areas are tightening.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Kneip affirmed:
“Most tools in this space stop at visibility, acting like a gateway or as a sole discovery layer that helps you see agentic activity. Helmet is different because we’re built as a full-lifecycle platform, helping teams discover what’s running, monitor how agents and MCP connections behave, and then actually manage it. The real differentiator is enforcement. We give CISOs the ability to set policy and instantly block out-of-policy or noncompliant connections in real time. If you have a gateway without enforcement, developers will just work around it.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Kneip concluded:
“In the near term, our biggest goal is building the team and scaling the platform responsibly. We’re planning to hire roughly 10 additional people over the next six months, with a focus on R&D and customer management, as we continue to onboard and support our early customers. A major priority is making Helmet easy to adopt and easy to integrate — including working seamlessly alongside existing infrastructure — so companies can implement it without slowing down developers.”
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