What Starseer does

Starseer is a Knoxville, Tennessee-based AI security company founded in 2025 that builds an interpretability-grounded platform for validating, detecting, and routing AI systems in enterprise and government environments. The company's core technology applies mechanistic interpretability—including activation analysis, circuit tracing, and behavioral probing—to examine what AI models learn and do at inference, surfacing threats such as architectural backdoors, hidden capabilities, and misaligned representations that output-based behavioral monitoring misses. The platform is delivered as four products: AI-Verify (pre-deployment model validation that confirms approved models are the only ones running), AI-DE (detection engineering with versioned, CI/CD-tested YAML detections), AI-EDR (continuous runtime detection and response on live AI endpoints with prompt lineage tracing), and AI-SIR (intent-based intelligent routing that classifies prompts and dispatches them to optimal models based on policy, cost, compliance, and latency). The platform supports more than ten model providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Mistral, DeepSeek, IBM Granite, and local runtimes like Ollama, and integrates with GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Jenkins pipelines.

Starseer monetizes through tiered platform subscriptions—Essentials (free developer trial with a lightweight Canary model), Advanced, Enterprise, and Labs—priced custom-quoted based on environment scope with annual billing on Advanced/Enterprise and multi-year engagements on Labs. Supplementary revenue comes from professional services: Risk & Strategy Advisory (monthly retainers), Model Selection, System Optimization, and AI/LLM/RAG Design engagements, plus a Model Forensics add-on for analyst-assisted behavior analysis. Its go-to-market combines enterprise field sales (demo-driven, advisory-contact funnels) with product-led growth via the free trial, event presence at Ai4 2026 and the BSides conference circuit, and community leadership through OWASP GenAI Project sponsorship. The company holds SOC 2 Type I certification and aligns compliance reporting to NIST AI RMF and ISO 42001.

The company targets three primary customer segments: Enterprise Security & AI Teams (CISOs, SOC builders, detection engineers), Federal & Government agencies, and AI-First Organizations. Three customer references are publicly visible: SCYTHE (cybersecurity firm deploying AI for federal programs) and two anonymized enterprise accounts reporting 30-day production deployments with significant cost reductions. Starseer has raised $2M in seed funding led by Gula Tech Adventures in July 2025 and is advised by Dr. Gary McGraw (BIML co-founder) and Rob Joyce (former NSA Cybersecurity Director). The founding team of six includes Tim Schulz (CEO) and Carl Hurd (CTO), with backgrounds spanning AI security and reverse engineering/zero-day research.

Name

Starseer

Legal name

Starseer, Inc.

Website

https://starseer.ai

Company type

Private

Founded year

2025

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Starseer is an AI security platform built on mechanistic interpretability, offering pre-deployment model validation, runtime detection and response, and intelligent request routing for enterprises and government agencies deploying AI in production.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI Security Software

NAICS

Custom Computer Programming Services (541511), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Enterprise AI Governance, Risk & Compliance Platforms (Model Risk, Audit, Policies) (HDAEANAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

AI Observability, Monitoring & Evaluation Platforms (Drift, Quality, Safety) (HDAEANAF), Audit, Explainability & Accountability Tooling (traceability, reporting) (HDAAAKAL)

Keywords

• AI security platform
• Model validation
• Runtime detection response
• Mechanistic interpretability
• Intelligent model routing

Headquarters

HQ city

Knoxville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Platform Subscriptions: Subscription-based platform products spanning model validation (AI-Verify), runtime detection and response (AI-EDR), and intelligent routing (AI-SIR). Four tiers (Essentials, Advanced, Enterprise, Labs) with custom quotes based on environment scope. Annual billing implied by tier structure.
2. Professional Services: Advisory services (retained strategic guidance on AI risk posture and security strategy) and Design/Build services (scoped project engagements for model selection, LLM/RAG architecture design, and optimization). Engagement-led pricing with monthly retainers available.
3. Model Forensics Add-on: Analyst-assisted analysis service where the Starseer team runs behavior comparison analysis, known-good baseline diffing, and delivers detailed findings with remediation guidance. Available as add-on to any platform tier.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Starseer sells an enterprise AI security platform built on mechanistic interpretability. Its core products are AI-Verify (pre-deployment model validation that surfaces backdoors, hidden capabilities, and misaligned representations), AI-EDR (runtime detection and response against live AI endpoints and agentic workflows), AI-SIR (an intelligent routing gateway that classifies prompts by intent and routes them to optimal models while enforcing security policy), and AI-DE (a detection engineering workbench with versioned, CI/CD-tested detection rules). The platform is delivered as subscription software with tiered pricing (Essentials, Advanced, Enterprise, Labs) plus add-on advisory, forensics, and design services.

Product overview

Starseer is an AI security platform built on interpretability, offering a platform-plus-modules architecture with three core products: AI-Verify for pre-deployment model validation, AI-DE for detection engineering, AI-EDR for runtime detection and response, and AI-SIR for intelligent routing. These products work together to provide full lifecycle coverage from source to production: AI-Verify validates models before deployment using mechanistic interpretability, AI-DE engineers the detection rules that run at runtime, AI-EDR monitors live endpoints continuously, and AI-SIR routes requests based on policy, cost, and compliance constraints. The platform is offered through tiered subscriptions (Essentials, Advanced, Enterprise, Labs) plus add-on services including Model Forensics, Risk & Strategy Advisory, and assessment-led service engagements for AI model selection, system optimization, and architecture design.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• AI-Verify: Model validation product that uses interpretability techniques to surface backdoors, hidden capabilities, and misaligned representations before deployment.
• AI-EDR
• AI-SIR
• AI-DE

Products and services

• AI-Verify Model validation platform using interpretability techniques (activation analysis, circuit tracing, representation alignment scoring) to surface backdoors, hidden capabilities, and misaligned representations before AI models are deployed. For enterprise security and AI teams validating models in production pipelines.
• AI-EDR (AI Endpoint Detection & Response) Runtime detection and response platform that engineers versioned behavioral detections and runs them continuously against live AI endpoints and agentic workflows. Contains threats, preserves forensic state, and feeds findings back into detection tuning. For enterprise SOCs, detection engineers, and AI security teams.
• AI-SIR (AI Intelligent Router) Intelligent routing layer that classifies every prompt by intent and complexity, routes requests to optimal models based on policy, cost, compliance, and latency constraints, and enforces security policies. For enterprise AI platform teams managing multi-model fleets.
• AI-DE (AI Detection Engineering)
• Model Forensics
• Risk & Strategy Advisory
• AI Model Selection Services
• AI System Optimization Services
• AI/LLM/RAG Design Services

Quantifiable outcome

• 40%+ AI risk reduction across AI deployments
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration13 records

AI capability9 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• Dr. Gary McGrawcoreOthers · 3 February 2026Software security pioneer and author joins Starseer Advisory Board. Co-founder of Berryville Institute of Machine Learning and author of BIML-78 risk framework and 2024 LLM architectural risk analysis. Brings 25+ years of industry experience advising high-growth security companies. Gula Tech Adventures cited McGraw's advisory role as validation of Starseer's technical approach.
• SCYTHEcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 January 2026Strategic partnership to enhance enterprise security against AI-driven and agentic workflow attacks. Combines SCYTHE's adversary emulation capabilities with Starseer's AI visibility and control technology to launch Shadow AI Readiness Assessments that detect unauthorized, tampered, or malicious AI models within enterprise environments. Joint solution enables security teams to safely emulate AI-native attack paths and produce defensible evidence of their ability to detect adversarial AI.
• OWASP GenAI ProjectcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSponsor and contributing member of OWASP GenAI Project. Supports expanded AI security frameworks and tools for securing generative AI. Starseer contributes to frameworks and tools used by 25,000+ practitioners in the AI security community.
• MITRE ATLASsupportingTechnology or IntegrationStarseer maps detection coverage to MITRE ATLAS (Adversarial Threat Landscape for Artificial-Intelligence Systems) tactics. Coverage gap view shows where detection stack is strong, partial, or blind against documented AI attack techniques.
• Rob JoycecoreOthersFormer Director of Cybersecurity at NSA joins as Strategic Advisor. Brings federal threat intelligence expertise to guide Starseer's security approach and government market engagement.

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Troj.ai: Direct competitor providing AI threat detection and behavioral analysis to identify adversarial manipulation of ML models. Overlaps with Starseer's mechanistic interpretability thesis, though Troj approaches detection through behavioral rather than internals-based analysis.
• Robust Intelligence: Direct competitor in AI security posture management and runtime protection for ML models. Was acquired by Cisco in 2024 and folded into Cisco's security portfolio, illustrating the strategic value incumbents place on this category and the consolidation risk for independents like Starseer.
• CalypsoAI: Direct competitor offering an AI security and governance platform with model evaluation, red-teaming, and runtime guardrails. Targets enterprise security and compliance teams with a comparable platform-plus-services motion across model validation and protection.
• HiddenLayer: Direct competitor providing AI security posture management, model scanning, and runtime detection for AI/ML assets. Targets the same enterprise security buyer with overlapping capabilities around model supply chain risk and adversarial attack detection.
• Lakera: Direct competitor focused on LLM application security with prompt injection defense, content moderation, and AI guardrails via the Gandalf API. Competes most directly on runtime prompt protection and publishes transparent PLG pricing, contrasting with Starseer's enterprise-only model.
• Aporia: Direct competitor providing AI guardrails and observability platform for ML models in production. Overlaps with Starseer's runtime monitoring and policy enforcement, though Aporia is more focused on ML model observability than LLM-specific threats.
• Lasso Security: Direct competitor offering an AI security platform focused on shadow AI discovery, LLM usage governance, and data loss prevention for generative AI tools. Adjacent overlap with Starseer's AI-SIR routing layer for governing model usage.
• Protect AI: Direct competitor offering an AI/ML security platform spanning model scanning, vulnerability management, and runtime guardrails. Most closely comparable on product breadth across the AI lifecycle, though Starseer differentiates on mechanistic interpretability versus Protect AI's behavioral testing approach.

Broad incumbents

• CrowdStrike: Broad incumbent whose Charlotte AI and Falcon platform extensions move into AI workload protection. Competes with Starseer for the same enterprise security buyer via an established endpoint and cloud security footprint that Starseer lacks.
• Palo Alto Networks: Broad incumbent that has entered the AI security category via Prisma AIRS, integrating AI workload protection, posture management, and runtime security into its broader security platform. Represents both a competitive threat and a likely strategic acquirer for specialized AI security startups.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/starseerai
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/starseer

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Starseer