The challenge with granting company-wide access to AI tools is that employees will inevitably find unexpected applications for them. This reality is fueling growing concerns that organizations now face significant new security vulnerabilities—or will very soon.

Shahar Bahat, CEO and co-founder of Pluto Security, points to the speed of AI adoption as evidence of this risk. She notes that a newly released AI tool can appear within a company's systems in as little as two hours. Developers, she explains, rank fourth in terms of adoption speed.

Her company's tools reportedly discovered a "vibe-coded" application built by a finance employee at a Fortune 500 company to track customer information and churn—but the app was left completely exposed to the internet.

Pluto, which just emerged from stealth with $42 million in funding, represents the latest wave of security startups racing to help enterprises close these gaps. These companies are attracting substantial investment based on the belief that traditional security software simply isn't designed to monitor and control AI tools, connectors, and usage effectively.

Bahat says Pluto started selling in April and has already surpassed $2 million in annual recurring revenue, serving more than 30 enterprise customers including Oscar Health, Workato, Sixt, and AlphaSense.

The company's funding includes an $8.5 million seed round led by TLV Partners, with participation from the founders of cybersecurity firm Armis. More recently, Pluto raised a $34 million Series A led by Jump Capital, with involvement from Skinos (Check Point co-founder Shlomo Kramer's venture firm), Ansa Capital, and other angel investors.

This represents solid momentum for a young startup, though not unprecedented in today's AI landscape. The concern, however, extends beyond the large tech companies that typically lead AI adoption.

When asked where she sees the greatest risks, Bahat explained that challenges vary based on the CISO's mindset and the organization's willingness to embrace AI—but dangers exist regardless.

"In general, I'll say there was not one POC in which we entered and didn't find malicious stuff," she stated. "Whether those are extension packages or skills - some of them had active live attacks while we did the POC. Which again, for me, product-wise is amazing. For the companies, it's not very good."

Pluto's core premise is that securing these environments requires security tools that monitor what AI agents are doing in real time, while also tracking how employees build and deploy them.

"We're moving from user behavior to agent behavior," Bahat said.

The startup's software monitors the AI tools employees use, along with the skills, extensions, MCP servers, and other components those tools depend on—as well as the apps and agents being created. The company claims it can identify risky components, detect potentially dangerous agent activity, and enforce security policies without preventing employees from using or building AI tools.

To accomplish this, Pluto connects to endpoint security and device management systems, deploying its own sensors through them or directly onto devices. It collects data including prompts, commands, running processes, permissions, and users' previous activity, then uses proprietary "lightweight" models on endpoints to assess what an agent is attempting to do.

What distinguishes Pluto's system is its ability to intervene while an agent is operating, according to Bahat. If an agent tries to obtain permissions beyond what a user intended, for instance, the system can halt the action or inject instructions into the session prompting the agent to request confirmation.

"We can inject context back to the session, and this way I can change how the agent is working," Bahat explained.

The startup also employs an unconventional customer acquisition strategy. In April, it launched Plutonium, a free platform allowing anyone to check risks associated with publicly available AI skills, connectors, and add-ons. The platform includes an MCP scanner and a catalog of verified components.

Bahat claims thousands of security professionals use Plutonium, and the community has become a valuable source of feedback and potential customers. She says 70% of Pluto's sales pipeline now originates from inbound interest, though she didn't specify how much comes directly through Plutonium.

Pluto plans to invest its new capital in product development, expanding security research efforts, and growing its U.S. presence. The company has 40 employees across the U.S. and Israel.