Oso

Security for AI Identity AccessDeveloper Tools also known as Oso Security, Inc.

Market readinessHow well the company can compete in its security market, scored across eight dimensions against public evidence. Established: Market readiness of 25 to 30, the typical band where most analyzed companies land.
DefensibilityHow well the company holds its position if competitors catch up on features, scored across seven dimensions against public evidence. Contested: Defensibility of 13 to 14, the typical band, where a moat exists but is under pressure.
Founded 2018
Last updated 2026-07-15

All analysis was generated autonomously, without human review. Scores are analytical opinions drawn from the cited public sources, without hands-on testing. They are not audits, certifications, investment reports, purchasing advice, or evaluations of quality.

Executive Summary

Oso spent seven years building developer authorization. Its Oso Cloud service and Polar policy language let engineering teams at Duolingo, Intercom, and Productboard decide who can do what inside an application. Oso now markets a product to secure AI agents, but its documentation shows only discovery, session monitoring, and alerting, and marks the enforcement piece, which would restrict what an agent does, "coming soon," even as its marketing describes controls. So Oso's durable business is still the authorization engine embedded in a customer's own code, which is costly to replace. The newer agent-visibility tooling is easier for a rival to match. Watch whether Oso ships the agent enforcement its documentation still lists as coming soon.

Sourced Details

Description Oso is an authorization company. Its Oso Cloud service and Polar policy language give developers fine-grained access control for applications, and its Oso for Agents line adds visibility into the AI agents employees run, with policy controls in development. [f1]
Founded 2018 [f2]
HQ New York, NY [f2]
Latest funding Series B, $15 million, June 2023, led by Felicis Ventures [f3]

Products

Product What it does
Oso Cloud Centralized authorization service built on the Polar policy language, providing fine-grained access control (RBAC, ReBAC, ABAC) to applications through APIs and SDKs.
Oso for Agents Discovers AI agents across endpoints and browsers, monitors agent sessions, and alerts on unsanctioned usage or sensitive data. Policy-based controls are in development.

Matrix Coverage

AI Defense Matrix

GovernIdentifyProtectDetectRespondRecover
AI-Workload Platforms Inference servers, training platforms, vector DB platforms, and the model-loading supply chain.
AI Orchestration Tools Agentic orchestration tools, plus their plugins, skills, hooks, system prompts, scaffolding, harnesses, configuration settings, and MCP clients on user devices.
AI-Generated Code Code produced by AI tools, AI-assisted reviews, AI-generated infrastructure-as-code and tests, and vibe-coded apps that bypass CI/CD.
AI Gateways & Routers MCP proxies and gateways, LLM routers, outbound AI-service traffic, shadow AI egress, and model-registry traffic.
AI Model Model weights, fine-tuning checkpoints, model cards, registries, AIBOM, and the third-party LLMs your enterprise consumes.
Training Data Datasets used for training, fine-tuning, and continued learning.
Runtime AI Data User prompts, inference inputs, RAG content, vector DB content, persistent agent memory, and interaction history.
AI Agent Identities AI agents as non-human principals, plus credentials, keys, permission scopes, service accounts, and delegation chains across agents and tools.

Oso for Agents discovers AI agents across endpoints and browsers, monitors agent sessions through an edge proxy, and alerts on unsanctioned usage and sensitive data. These capabilities are mapped to the AI Defense Matrix. [f4]

Cyber Defense Matrix

IdentifyProtectDetectRespondRecover
Devices Workstations, servers, phones, tablets, storage, network devices, IoT infrastructure, and similar hardware.
Applications Software, interactions, and application flows on the devices.
Networks Connections and traffic flowing among devices and apps, plus communication paths.
Data Content at rest, in transit, or in use across devices, apps, and networks.
Users The people using the devices, apps, networks, and data.

Oso Cloud enforces fine-grained authorization for applications, deciding which actions each user or service may perform against an application's resources. It is mapped to the Cyber Defense Matrix. [f1]

Market Readiness

How well the company can compete in its security market, scored across eight dimensions against public evidence.

Established 26 /40 Established: Market readiness of 25 to 30, the typical band where most analyzed companies land.
Dimension Score
Problem Clarity How precisely the company defines its problem, with evidence the problem exists at the scale claimed. 3/5
Capability Depth How specific the technical capabilities are, with evidence beyond marketing claims such as docs, demos, and third-party validation. 4/5
Market Timing Whether the market is ready for this product, with evidence that buyers are actively seeking solutions. 3/5
Team Credibility Demonstrated domain expertise with public signals such as prior exits, publications, and industry recognition. 3/5
GTM Proof Evidence of actual traction (customers, revenue signals, partnerships) beyond stated intentions. 4/5
Funding Efficiency Whether funding matches go-to-market ambition, with signs of capital-efficient growth. 3/5
Category Clarity Whether the company creates or fits a recognizable category that buyers can quickly place in their stack. 3/5
Incumbent Defensibility How vulnerable the core value proposition is to absorption as a feature by a platform vendor. 3/5

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Business Risks
Problem & Market
Product Capabilities
Competitive Positioning
Go-to-Market & Traction
Team & Credibility
Trust Readiness
Competitors

Strategy Deep Dive

A closer look at the company's product strategy, measuring how defensible it is against market forces and examining the eight areas behind it.

Defensibility

Contested 14 /21 Contested: Defensibility of 13 to 14, the typical band, where a moat exists but is under pressure. reinforce or reposition

Dimension Score
Value Delivery Does the product sell software as the product, or judgment, trust, or accountability with software as the delivery mechanism. 1/3
Switching Cost How expensive leaving is for a customer: data portability, integrations, learned workflows, network effects, regulatory data residency. 3/3
Compliance Moat Whether certifications, liability acceptance, or audit trails block an easy replacement. 1/3
Problem Complexity Whether the product requires ML, optimization, real-time systems, or years of specialized expertise. 3/3
Buyer Profile Whether buyers are SMB operators, mid-market IT teams, or regulated enterprises and governments with procurement gates. 2/3
Layer Whether the product is an end-user application, a platform with application features, or infrastructure other applications depend on. 3/3
Proprietary Data, Content, or IP Whether the product accumulates datasets, content licenses, or IP that a rival cannot recreate from scratch. 1/3

Unlock the Full Analysis

The reasoning for the scores, the strategy deep dive, the business risks, and more. AI access comes with the purchase, so your AI tools can read the full profile too. You keep 12 months of access.

One-time purchase: $20 per profile.

Unlock

Reading several? Unlock the entire catalog.

Strategic Market Segmentation
Product Capabilities & AI Advantages
Sales Engagement & Go-to-Market
Pricing Model
Product Delivery & Operations
Earning Customers' Trust
Platform Strategy & Ecosystem Positioning
Team & Execution Capability

Sources

Company Detail Sources (4)
Id Source Tier Accessed
f1 Oso Cloud documentation official 2026-07-04
f2 TechCrunch: Oso announces $8.2M Series A press 2026-07-04
f3 TechCrunch: Oso sees huge opportunity in simplifying authorization press 2026-07-04
f4 Oso (AI Defense Matrix Catalog) other 2026-07-04
Profile Analysis Sources (15)
Id Source Tier Accessed
s1 Oso homepage with customer logos and testimonials
“Visibility and controls to secure agents. Trusted by Verizon, Visa, Wayfair, Brex, Duolingo. Testimonials: Evan Ziebart, Duolingo; Jiří Brunclík, Productboard; Brian Scanlan, Intercom. Read a series of technical guides on application authorization in the Authorization Academy.”
official 2026-07-04
s2 Oso Cloud documentation
“Oso Cloud is a centralized authorization service built on Polar, our logic programming language designed for expressing permission systems. Polar can express any model, including RBAC, ReBAC, ABAC. You call our APIs via HTTP or SDKs.”
official 2026-07-04
s3 Oso for Agents overview documentation
“AI coding agents run with real access to your systems. Discover: Oso inventories AI agents across endpoints, browsers, and network traffic. Monitor: Oso captures every prompt, completion, and tool call. Detect: Oso generates alerts. Control: Coming soon.”
official 2026-07-04
s4 Oso for Agents pricing page
“Developer $0 user/mo. A user is a human invoking agents. There's no limit to the number of agents associated with a single user. Volume pricing: set up a meeting to discuss annual contracts + volume pricing.”
official 2026-07-04
s5 Oso About Us page with leadership
“Seven years building permissions for humans taught us how and why those models fail for agents. Oso gives organizations the visibility and controls to get their arms around agent adoption. Leadership: Graham Neray, CEO and Founder. Nick Kucharski, CTO.”
official 2026-07-04
s6 TechCrunch: Oso announces $8.2M Series A
“Oso announces $8.2M Series A. The company, which launched in 2018, has nine employees. Neray and co-founder and CTO Sam Scott are building a diverse company as they grow.”
press 2026-07-04
s7 TechCrunch: Oso Series B, product-led growth
“the company added Oso Cloud last year with ARR from that product growing 20% month over month. doing this without any outbound sales. keeping the company lean with just 13 employees. But with the $15 million investment. led the team at Felicis to lead this round. We also have Sequoia who led prior.”
press 2026-07-04
s8 The New Stack: Oso Focuses on Fine-Grained Authorization To Thwart AI Risks
“Oso advocates the idea of automated least privilege. Broken access control tops the list on OWASP's Top 10 web application security risks. No one's shipping AI workloads that touch sensitive data because they don't feel like they have a handle on security, Neray said.”
press 2026-07-04
s9 Oso (AI Defense Matrix Catalog)
“Discovers shadow AI agents across endpoints and browsers, monitors agent sessions through an edge proxy, and alerts on unsanctioned usage and sensitive data. Deployment: SaaS.”
other 2026-07-04
s10 Oso: Announcing SOC 2 Certification
“Trust your centralized authorization service: Announcing SOC 2 Certification and Oso Fallback.”
official 2026-07-04
s11 Oso trust center on Vanta (trust.osohq.com)
“Vanta-hosted trust center. Lists a SOC 2 Type II report (2025), penetration tests, a 2026 SOC 2 bridge letter, controls, and subprocessors, with reports gated behind a request-access control.”
official 2026-07-04
s12 SEC EDGAR: Oso Security Inc. Form D (CIK 0001775888, filed 2019-05-10)
“entityName Oso Security Inc. Related persons: Graham Neray, Samuel Scott. yearOfInc 2018. totalAmountSold 2743999. industryGroupType Other Technology.”
regulatory 2026-07-04
s13 sph.sh: Cedar vs Rego vs OpenFGA policy language comparison
“Managed Service: Cedar - AWS Verified Permissions; Rego - Sunset; OpenFGA DSL - Auth0/Okta FGA; Cerbos YAML/CEL - Cerbos Hub. Open Source: Cedar SDK; OPA (CNCF); OpenFGA; Cerbos PDP.”
research 2026-07-04
s14 GitHub: osohq/oso open-source library (deprecated)
“oso. Deprecated: See README.”
official 2026-07-04
s15 Oso Least Privilege Report 2026 (Oso x Cyera)
“Least Privilege Report 2026 [Oso x Cyera]. Your employees ignore 96% of their permissions. Agents won't.”
official 2026-07-04
Deep-Dive Sources (14)
Id Source Tier Accessed
s1 Oso homepage with customer logos and testimonials
“Visibility and controls to secure agents. Trusted by Verizon, Visa, Wayfair, Brex, Duolingo. Testimonials: Evan Ziebart, Duolingo; Jiří Brunclík, Productboard; Brian Scanlan, Intercom. Read a series of technical guides on application authorization in the Authorization Academy.”
official 2026-07-04
s2 Oso Cloud documentation
“Oso Cloud is a centralized authorization service built on Polar, our logic programming language designed for expressing permission systems. Polar can express any model, including RBAC, ReBAC, ABAC. You call our APIs via HTTP or SDKs.”
official 2026-07-04
s3 Oso for Agents overview documentation
“Discover: Oso continuously inventories AI agents across endpoints, browsers, and network traffic. Monitor: Oso captures every prompt, completion, and tool call. Detect: Oso generates alerts. Alerts are delivered via Slack with links to investigation details. Control: Coming soon.”
official 2026-07-04
s4 Oso for Agents pricing page
“Developer $0 user/mo. What counts as a user? A user is a human invoking agents. There's no limit to the number of agents associated with a single user. Do you offer volume pricing? Yes. You can set up a meeting with us to discuss our annual contracts + volume pricing.”
official 2026-07-04
s5 Oso About Us page with leadership
“Seven years building permissions for humans taught us how and why those models fail for agents. Oso gives organizations the visibility and controls to get their arms around agent adoption. Leadership: Graham Neray, CEO and Founder. Nick Kucharski, CTO.”
official 2026-07-04
s6 TechCrunch: Oso announces $8.2M Series A
“the company, which launched in 2018, has nine employees. Neray and co-founder and CTO Sam Scott are thinking carefully about how to build a diverse, inclusive and equitable company as they grow.”
press 2026-07-04
s7 TechCrunch: Oso Series B, product-led growth
“the company added Oso Cloud last year with ARR from that product growing 20% month over month. doing this without any outbound sales. keeping the company lean with just 13 employees. But with the $15 million investment. led the team at Felicis to lead this round.”
press 2026-07-04
s8 The New Stack: Oso Focuses on Fine-Grained Authorization To Thwart AI Risks
“Oso advocates the idea of automated least privilege. Broken access control tops the list on OWASP's Top 10 web application security risks. Today, Oso gives you the building blocks, and in the future, Oso will give you a much more turnkey solution, Neray said.”
press 2026-07-04
s9 Oso (AI Defense Matrix Catalog)
“Discovers shadow AI agents across endpoints and browsers, monitors agent sessions through an edge proxy, and alerts on unsanctioned usage and sensitive data. Deployment: SaaS.”
other 2026-07-04
s10 Oso: Announcing SOC 2 Certification
“Trust your centralized authorization service: Announcing SOC 2 Certification and Oso Fallback.”
official 2026-07-04
s11 Oso trust center on Vanta (trust.osohq.com)
“Vanta-hosted trust center. Lists a SOC 2 Type II report (2025), penetration tests, a 2026 SOC 2 bridge letter, controls, and subprocessors, with reports gated behind a request-access control.”
official 2026-07-04
s12 SEC EDGAR: Oso Security Inc. Form D (CIK 0001775888, filed 2019-05-10)
“entityName Oso Security Inc. Related persons: Graham Neray, Samuel Scott. yearOfInc 2018. totalAmountSold 2743999. industryGroupType Other Technology.”
regulatory 2026-07-04
s13 sph.sh: Cedar vs Rego vs OpenFGA policy language comparison
“Managed Service: Cedar - AWS Verified Permissions; OpenFGA DSL - Auth0/Okta FGA; Cerbos YAML/CEL - Cerbos Hub. Open Source: Cedar SDK; OPA (CNCF); OpenFGA; Cerbos PDP.”
research 2026-07-04
s14 GitHub: osohq/oso open-source library (deprecated)
“oso. Deprecated: See README.”
official 2026-07-04

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