Salt Security

Security for AI Application Security

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
Funding $271M
Last updated 2026-07-05

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

Salt Security repositioned around AI agents in 2026, while its outside endorsements still describe the older API product. The company sells software that finds and protects enterprise APIs, launched an Agentic Security Platform in March 2026 for the AI agents acting through them, and added Salt Code for coding assistants in June. Salt announced an Overall Leader placement in KuppingerCole's 2025 API security report, Gartner reviewers rate the API platform 4.6 out of 5, and Salt Labs researchers disclosed a flaw with an NVD record rated critical. Salt's own surveys supply the bulk of the statistics behind its agent pitch, and no funding or revenue newer than the 1.4 billion dollar round of 2022 is publicly visible.

Sourced Details

Description API security company whose platform discovers APIs, governs their security posture, and detects and blocks attacks in real time, extended in 2026 to secure the AI agents and MCP servers that act through those APIs. [f1]
Founded 2018 [f2]
HQ Palo Alto, CA [f3]
Funding $271M total [f4]
Latest funding Series D, $140M (February 2022) [f4]

Products

Product What it does
Salt Agentic Security Platform Platform that discovers agents, MCP servers, and APIs, manages their security posture, and detects and stops abuse at runtime. Salt Code extends it into AI coding assistants.

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.

The Agentic Security Platform discovers AI agents and MCP servers, watches their runtime behavior, and enforces policy on AI-generated code, defending AI assets themselves. It is mapped to the AI Defense Matrix. [f5]

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.

The API security platform discovers APIs, governs their posture, and detects and blocks attacks against them, defending conventional application assets. It is mapped to the Cyber Defense Matrix. [f6]

Market Readiness

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

Established 28 /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. 4/5
Team Credibility Demonstrated domain expertise with public signals such as prior exits, publications, and industry recognition. 4/5
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. 2/5
Category Clarity Whether the company creates or fits a recognizable category that buyers can quickly place in their stack. 4/5
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. 2/3
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. 3/3
Layer Whether the product is an end-user application, a platform with application features, or infrastructure other applications depend on. 2/3
Proprietary Data, Content, or IP Whether the product accumulates datasets, content licenses, or IP that a rival cannot recreate from scratch. 2/3

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 (6)
Id Source Tier Accessed
f1 Salt Security homepage official 2026-06-11
f2 About Salt Security page (2018 founding corroborated by the salt.security domain registration date, 2018-10-18) official 2026-06-11
f3 Salt Agentic Security Platform launch announcement (PR Newswire, March 18, 2026) press 2026-06-11
f4 Salt Security Series D announcement (PR Newswire, February 10, 2022) press 2026-06-29
f5 Agentic Security Platform page official 2026-06-11
f6 Salt Security customers page official 2026-06-11
Profile Analysis Sources (32)
Id Source Tier Accessed
s1 Salt Security homepage
“Salt's Agentic Security Graph maps every agent, MCP server, and API in your environment, so you know exactly what your agents are doing and stop them when they overstep.”
official 2026-06-29
s2 Agentic Security Platform page
“Salt's Agentic Security Platform gives you full visibility and control, so you can reduce risk, meet compliance, and stay resilient.”
official 2026-06-29
s3 About Salt Security page
“Roey Eliyahu and Michael Nicosia founded Salt in 2018 when they realized a huge new security risk was being created as applications were being broken into their component parts (APIs) to deliver great customer experiences.”
official 2026-06-29
s4 Salt Security customers page
“Only Salt uses big data and patented artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze and correlate the activity of millions of users in parallel to identify and stop attacks early.”
official 2026-06-29
s5 Salt Protect runtime protection page
“Salt Collect analyzes real traffic to uncover vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and data exposure.”
official 2026-06-29
s6 API governance, posture and compliance page
“Stop risky APIs before they're exploited. And stay audit-ready.”
official 2026-06-29
s7 Agentic security risk assessment page
“Shadow AI agents, undocumented MCP servers, and exposed APIs are already interacting with your corporate data. Find them before attackers do.”
official 2026-06-29
s8 Salt Labs research page
“Salt Labs identifies API threats and vulnerabilities in the wild across organizations around the globe. Our in-depth reports document the steps of an exploit, including the processes and tooling, to reveal an attacker.”
official 2026-06-29
s9 Salt Security partners page
“The platform maintains state across 100s of attributes of typical behavior for each user or entity, including aspects such as consistency of parameter input, frequency of requests, volume of response, and devices or addresses typically used.”
official 2026-06-29
s10 Salt vs Akamai comparison page
“Akamai acquired Noname in 2024 to add API discovery to its edge and WAF platform.”
official 2026-06-29
s11 Salt Security blog: completed SOC 2 audit (January 28, 2019)
“We're Committed To Security and Have SOC 2 To Prove It”
official 2026-06-29
s12 SC Media coverage of the Salt Security Series D (February 10, 2022)
“application programming interface (API) company Salt Security on Thursday announced $140 million in Series D funding that takes its valuation to $1.4 billion”
press 2026-06-29
s13 Help Net Security on Salt's AI agent protections (September 16, 2025)
“Gartner also projects that by 2028, "80% of organizations will see AI agents consume the majority of their APIs, rather than human developers."”
press 2026-06-29
s14 IT Security Guru on the Salt Agentic Security Platform launch (March 19, 2026)
“The Salt Agentic Security Platform gives security teams a unified way to discover, visualise, govern and protect this entire Agentic Security Graph rather than just individual components within it.”
press 2026-06-29
s15 TechCrunch on Akamai's acquisition of Noname (May 7, 2024)
“Akamai on Tuesday said it has agreed to buy Noname in a $450 million deal.”
press 2026-06-29
s16 SecurityWeek on CrowdStrike's investment in Salt Security (September 20, 2022)
“Endpoint detection and response pioneer CrowdStrike is elbowing its way into new security markets with a planned acquisition of attack surface management startup Reposify and a strategic investment in API security vendor Salt Security.”
press 2026-06-29
s17 Salt Security Series D announcement (PR Newswire, February 10, 2022)
“This round brings the company's total funding to $271 million, with $210 million raised in the last 12 months.”
press 2026-06-29
s18 Salt Agentic Security Platform launch announcement (PR Newswire, March 18, 2026)
“The Agentic Security Platform has already given us improved visibility and protection that we need to confidently scale AI across the Siemens Software business.”
press 2026-06-29
s19 Salt Code launch announcement (PR Newswire, June 1, 2026)
“Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, Codex and Gemini CLI now generate policy-compliant code by default, from prompt to production.”
press 2026-06-29
s20 State of AI and API Security report announcement (PR Newswire, April 8, 2026)
“92% of organizations lack the advanced security maturity required to defend these environments.”
press 2026-06-29
s21 KuppingerCole recognition announcement (PR Newswire, August 20, 2025)
“has been named an Overall Leader in the KuppingerCole Leadership Compass for API Security and Management 2025. The company was also recognized as a Leader in the Product, Innovation, and Market categories”
press 2026-06-29
s22 AI agent API actions announcement (PR Newswire, September 2025)
“New Salt research shows that only 37% of organizations using agentic AI have a dedicated API security solution, 48% run 6-20 agent types, widening the API attack surface.”
press 2026-06-29
s23 Harness and Traceable complete merger announcement (PR Newswire, March 4, 2025)
“announced it has completed its merger with Traceable, the next-generation API Security Platform, effective March 4, 2025.”
press 2026-06-29
s24 Gartner Peer Insights: Salt Security API Protection Platform reviews and ratings (updated October 13, 2025)
“4.6 (56 Ratings). Rating Distribution 5 Star 68% 4 Star 29% 3 Star 4%”
research 2026-06-29
s25 KuppingerCole Leadership Compass: API Security and Management 2025 (Alexei Balaganski)
“Salt Security - API Security Platform”
research 2026-06-29
s26 The Hacker News on the Salt Labs Expo OAuth disclosure, CVE-2023-28131 (May 27, 2023)
“The shortcoming, assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2023-28131, has a severity rating of 9.6 on the CVSS scoring system. API security firm Salt Labs said the issue rendered services using the framework susceptible to credential leakage.”
research 2026-06-29
s27 TechTarget on Salt Labs research into ChatGPT plugin vulnerabilities (March 13, 2024)
“Salt Labs researchers are calling on OpenAI to clarify its documentation and on developers to be more aware of potential security vulnerabilities when working with ChatGPT.”
research 2026-06-29
s28 NVD record for CVE-2023-28131, the Salt Labs Expo OAuth flaw (CVSS 9.6 critical)
“A vulnerability in the expo.io framework allows an attacker to take over accounts and steal credentials on an application/website that configured the "Expo AuthSession Redirect Proxy" for social sign-in.”
research 2026-06-29
s29 Cequence homepage
“Secure the agentic enterprise. Every human, bot, and agent in your environment. Verified by what they do. Contained the moment they stray.”
other 2026-06-29
s30 Wallarm homepage
“Wallarm | AI Control Platform - Secure Every AI Workload”
other 2026-06-29
s31 Salt Security customers page logo wall and case-study roster
“Customer logo wall and case-study pages name Standard Bank Group, Cathay Bank, First City Monument Bank, Veridian Credit Union, SoFi, Solaris, Jemena, Hyundai, Stryker, Luxottica, and Carrefour.”
official 2026-06-29
s32 Salt Security partners page technology and channel roster
“Technology partners include CrowdStrike, Wiz, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, AWS, Kong, and HCL AppScan, and channel partners include M3corp and Iris Networks.”
official 2026-06-29
Deep-Dive Sources (33)
Id Source Tier Accessed
s1 Salt Security homepage
“Salt's Agentic Security Graph maps every agent, MCP server, and API in your environment, so you know exactly what your agents are doing and stop them when they overstep.”
official 2026-06-29
s2 Agentic Security Platform page
“Salt's Agentic Security Platform gives you full visibility and control, so you can reduce risk, meet compliance, and stay resilient.”
official 2026-06-29
s3 About Salt Security page
“Roey Eliyahu and Michael Nicosia founded Salt in 2018 when they realized a huge new security risk was being created as applications were being broken into their component parts (APIs) to deliver great customer experiences.”
official 2026-06-29
s4 Salt Security customers page
“Only Salt uses big data and patented artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze and correlate the activity of millions of users in parallel to identify and stop attacks early.”
official 2026-06-29
s5 Salt Protect runtime protection page
“Salt Collect analyzes real traffic to uncover vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and data exposure.”
official 2026-06-29
s6 API governance, posture and compliance page
“Stop risky APIs before they're exploited. And stay audit-ready.”
official 2026-06-29
s7 Agentic security risk assessment page
“No agents. No IT tickets. No internal access required.”
official 2026-06-29
s8 Salt Labs research page
“Salt Labs identifies API threats and vulnerabilities in the wild across organizations around the globe. Our in-depth reports document the steps of an exploit, including the processes and tooling, to reveal an attacker.”
official 2026-06-29
s9 Salt Security partners page
“The platform maintains state across 100s of attributes of typical behavior for each user or entity, including aspects such as consistency of parameter input, frequency of requests, volume of response, and devices or addresses typically used.”
official 2026-06-29
s10 Salt vs Akamai comparison page
“Akamai acquired Noname in 2024 to add API discovery to its edge and WAF platform.”
official 2026-06-29
s11 Salt Security blog: completed SOC 2 audit (January 28, 2019)
“We're Committed To Security and Have SOC 2 To Prove It”
official 2026-06-29
s12 SC Media coverage of the Salt Security Series D (February 10, 2022)
“application programming interface (API) company Salt Security on Thursday announced $140 million in Series D funding that takes its valuation to $1.4 billion”
press 2026-06-29
s13 Help Net Security on Salt's AI agent protections (September 16, 2025)
“Gartner also projects that by 2028, "80% of organizations will see AI agents consume the majority of their APIs, rather than human developers."”
press 2026-06-29
s14 IT Security Guru on the Salt Agentic Security Platform launch (March 19, 2026)
“The Salt Agentic Security Platform gives security teams a unified way to discover, visualise, govern and protect this entire Agentic Security Graph rather than just individual components within it.”
press 2026-06-29
s15 TechCrunch on Akamai's acquisition of Noname (May 7, 2024)
“Akamai on Tuesday said it has agreed to buy Noname in a $450 million deal.”
press 2026-06-29
s16 SecurityWeek on CrowdStrike's investment in Salt Security (September 20, 2022)
“Endpoint detection and response pioneer CrowdStrike is elbowing its way into new security markets with a planned acquisition of attack surface management startup Reposify and a strategic investment in API security vendor Salt Security.”
press 2026-06-29
s17 Salt Security Series D announcement (PR Newswire, February 10, 2022)
“This round brings the company's total funding to $271 million, with $210 million raised in the last 12 months.”
press 2026-06-29
s18 Salt Agentic Security Platform launch announcement (PR Newswire, March 18, 2026)
“The Agentic Security Platform has already given us improved visibility and protection that we need to confidently scale AI across the Siemens Software business.”
press 2026-06-29
s19 Salt Code launch announcement (PR Newswire, June 1, 2026)
“Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, Codex and Gemini CLI now generate policy-compliant code by default, from prompt to production.”
press 2026-06-29
s20 State of AI and API Security report announcement (PR Newswire, April 8, 2026)
“92% of organizations lack the advanced security maturity required to defend these environments.”
press 2026-06-29
s21 KuppingerCole recognition announcement (PR Newswire, August 20, 2025)
“has been named an Overall Leader in the KuppingerCole Leadership Compass for API Security and Management 2025. The company was also recognized as a Leader in the Product, Innovation, and Market categories”
press 2026-06-29
s22 AI agent API actions announcement (PR Newswire, September 2025)
“New Salt research shows that only 37% of organizations using agentic AI have a dedicated API security solution, 48% run 6-20 agent types, widening the API attack surface.”
press 2026-06-29
s23 Harness and Traceable complete merger announcement (PR Newswire, March 4, 2025)
“announced it has completed its merger with Traceable, the next-generation API Security Platform, effective March 4, 2025.”
press 2026-06-29
s24 Gartner Peer Insights: Salt Security API Protection Platform reviews and ratings (updated October 13, 2025)
“4.6 (56 Ratings). Rating Distribution 5 Star 68% 4 Star 29% 3 Star 4%”
research 2026-06-29
s25 KuppingerCole Leadership Compass: API Security and Management 2025 (Alexei Balaganski)
“Salt Security - API Security Platform”
research 2026-06-29
s26 The Hacker News on the Salt Labs Expo OAuth disclosure, CVE-2023-28131 (May 27, 2023)
“The shortcoming, assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2023-28131, has a severity rating of 9.6 on the CVSS scoring system. API security firm Salt Labs said the issue rendered services using the framework susceptible to credential leakage.”
research 2026-06-29
s27 TechTarget on Salt Labs research into ChatGPT plugin vulnerabilities (March 13, 2024)
“Salt Labs researchers are calling on OpenAI to clarify its documentation and on developers to be more aware of potential security vulnerabilities when working with ChatGPT.”
research 2026-06-29
s28 NVD record for CVE-2023-28131, the Salt Labs Expo OAuth flaw (CVSS 9.6 critical)
“A vulnerability in the expo.io framework allows an attacker to take over accounts and steal credentials on an application/website that configured the "Expo AuthSession Redirect Proxy" for social sign-in.”
research 2026-06-29
s29 Cequence homepage
“Secure the agentic enterprise. Every human, bot, and agent in your environment. Verified by what they do. Contained the moment they stray.”
other 2026-06-29
s30 Wallarm homepage
“Wallarm | AI Control Platform - Secure Every AI Workload”
other 2026-06-29
s31 Salt Security customers page logo wall and case-study roster
“Customer logo wall and case-study pages name Standard Bank Group, Cathay Bank, First City Monument Bank, Veridian Credit Union, SoFi, Solaris, Jemena, Hyundai, Stryker, Luxottica, and Carrefour.”
official 2026-06-29
s32 Salt Security partners page technology and channel roster
“Technology partners include CrowdStrike, Wiz, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, AWS, Kong, and HCL AppScan, and channel partners include M3corp and Iris Networks.”
official 2026-06-29
s33 Gartner Peer Insights: Salt Security API Protection Platform pricing overview (updated October 13, 2025)
“Salt Security API Protection Platform software offers a subscription-based pricing model with options typically structured according to the volume of API traffic and selected features.”
research 2026-06-29

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