Semgrep

Security for AI Application SecurityDeveloper Tools also known as r2c

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. Exposed: Defensibility of 12 or below. The position is exposed as AI lowers the cost of building commodity software.
Founded 2017
Funding $204M
Last updated 2026-07-11

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

Semgrep sells code, dependency, and secrets scanning on an open-source engine that runs locally and never uploads source by default, the central objection a code-scanning buyer raises. The engine solves a hard program-analysis problem and embeds in pipelines, yet it is reproducible: security firms forked it as OpenGrep after Semgrep changed its open-source rules license, and the reviewed record shows no private data corpus behind the rules. The trust portal publishes a SOC 2 Type II report and an outside penetration test, and after the May 2026 Qilin incident exposed scan results of Semgrep's own code via a sandbox API token, Semgrep says no customer findings or source code were accessed. What Semgrep keeps if rivals copy the engine is developer mindshare and execution speed.

Sourced Details

Description Semgrep is a static application security testing platform that scans source code, helping developers find and fix the security issues that matter. [f1]
Founded 2017 [f2]
HQ San Francisco, California, USA [f3]
Funding $204M total [f4]
Latest funding Series D, $100M (February 2025), led by Menlo Ventures [f4]
Deployment SaaS, Self-hosted [f5]

Products

Product What it does
Semgrep Static analysis platform that scans code regardless of who or what wrote it, with a Guardian mode and Multimodal AI that find and help fix vulnerabilities in AI-generated code as it lands.

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.

Semgrep scans code regardless of who or what wrote it, with a Guardian mode and Multimodal AI that find and help fix vulnerabilities in AI-generated code as it lands. It is mapped to the AI Defense Matrix. [f6]

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.

Semgrep provides static analysis, software composition analysis, and secrets scanning. This conventional security is mapped to the Cyber Defense Matrix. [f7]

Market Readiness

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

Established 30 /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. 4/5
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. 3/5
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

Exposed 12 /21 Exposed: Defensibility of 12 or below. The position is exposed as AI lowers the cost of building commodity software. pivot urgently

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. 2/3
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. 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 (7)
Id Source Tier Accessed
f1 Semgrep: Semgrep Code official 2026-07-09
f2 Semgrep About page official 2026-06-14
f3 Semgrep Wikipedia entry research 2026-06-14
f4 SiliconANGLE: Code security startup Semgrep reels in $100M from investors press 2026-06-27
f5 AI Defense Matrix Catalog entry other 2026-06-09
f6 AI Defense Matrix Catalog mapping other 2026-06-23
f7 Semgrep platform official 2026-06-14
Profile Analysis Sources (16)
Id Source Tier Accessed
s1 Semgrep homepage (AI-assisted SAST, SCA, Secrets, Multimodal)
“At RSA, we launched Semgrep Multimodal to combine AI reasoning with rule-based detection.”
official 2026-06-27
s2 Semgrep Code product page (multimodal SAST, deterministic plus AI)
“Semgrep Multimodal finds up to 3.5x more true positives at 19% lower cost per true positive compared to using AI alone. Multimodal reduces the number of findings you need to triage by 20% the day you turn it on.”
official 2026-06-27
s3 Semgrep Supply Chain product page (SCA with reachability, malicious dependency detection, EPSS) official 2026-06-27
s4 Semgrep Secrets product page (semantic and entropy analysis, validation)
“Go beyond regex: leverage Semantic Analysis, entropy analysis, and validation to accurately detect and fix secrets.”
official 2026-06-27
s5 Semgrep About page (founders, 2017 founding, named customers)
“Founded by Drew Dennison, Isaac Evans, and Luke O'Malley in 2017, the company's mission has been to profoundly improve software security from day 1.”
official 2026-06-27
s6 Semgrep GitHub repository (Community Edition engine, 20000+ Pro rules, local analysis)
“The Semgrep AppSec Platform works out-of-the-box with 20000+ proprietary rules across SAST, SCA, and secrets. Pro rules are written and maintained by the Semgrep security research team. Semgrep analyzes code locally on your computer or in your build environment: by default, code is never uploaded.”
official 2026-06-27
s7 Semgrep pricing page (per-contributor commercial tiers, free tier, contributor definition)
“A contributor is someone who made at least one commit to your organization's private repository scanned by Semgrep in the past 90 days.”
official 2026-06-27
s8 SiliconANGLE: Code security startup Semgrep reels in $100M from investors (Maria Deutscher, February 5, 2025)
“Menlo Ventures led the Series D investment. The company's total outside funding now stands at $204 million.”
press 2026-06-27
s9 Semgrep announces recognition in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for AST (PR Newswire, October 14, 2025)
“today announced it has been recognized in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Application Security Testing for the first time.”
press 2026-06-27
s10 Dark Reading: Code-Scanning Tool's License at Heart of Security Breakup (Robert Lemos)
“I think it was becoming very clear ... that Semgrep's biggest competitor was their own open source engine, and so they were trying to create a bigger gap.”
press 2026-06-27
s11 InfoQ: Opengrep Forks Semgrep to Liberate Rulesets After License Change (Matt Saunders)
“A consortium of software companies, including JIT and Orca Security, has launched Opengrep, a fork of Semgrep's open-source software, in response to licensing changes for rules provided in the OSS version.”
press 2026-06-27
s12 Semgrep*: Improving the Limited Performance of SAST Tools (EASE 2024, peer-reviewed)
“the vulnerability detection rates of individual tools range from 11.2% to 26.5%, but combining these four tools can detect 38.8% of vulnerabilities. Our newly configured Semgrep tool detects 44.7% of vulnerabilities, a 181% improvement in Semgrep's detection rate.”
research 2026-06-27
s13 QASecClaw: Multi-Agent LLM False Positive Reduction in SAST (arXiv preprint, May 2026, Semgrep as the SAST backbone)
“QASecClaw achieves an F1-score of 90.93%, compared with 78.39% for standalone Semgrep. This improvement is mainly driven by an 88.6% reduction in false positives, from 560 to 64.”
research 2026-06-27
s14 NVD CVE-2023-32758 (ReDoS in giturlparse as used in Semgrep)
“giturlparse (aka git-url-parse) through 1.2.2, as used in Semgrep 1.5.2 through 1.24.1, is vulnerable to ReDoS (Regular Expression Denial of Service) if parsing untrusted URLs.”
other 2026-06-27
s15 AppSec Santa independent Semgrep review (CE vs Platform, benchmark, customers, GitHub stars)
“Semgrep Code detects 72% of vulnerabilities in WebGoat vs 48% with CE alone, a 50% improvement through cross-file analysis. Used by Dropbox, Figma, Snowflake; 15,555 GitHub stars.”
press 2026-06-27
s16 Semgrep Trust Portal (SOC 2 Type II, third-party pentest, Qilin incident update)
“Semgrep Inc. is thrilled to announce our latest SOC 2 Type II report (covering December 1, 2023 - November 30, 2024) and our latest full-scope, whitebox penetration test (performed by Include Security).”
official 2026-06-27
Deep-Dive Sources (18)
Id Source Tier Accessed
s1 Semgrep homepage (AI-assisted SAST, SCA, Secrets, Multimodal)
“At RSA, we launched Semgrep Multimodal to combine AI reasoning with rule-based detection.”
official 2026-06-27
s2 Semgrep Code product page (multimodal SAST, deterministic plus AI)
“Semgrep Multimodal finds up to 3.5x more true positives at 19% lower cost per true positive compared to using AI alone. Multimodal reduces the number of findings you need to triage by 20% the day you turn it on.”
official 2026-06-27
s3 Semgrep Supply Chain product page (SCA with reachability, malicious dependency detection, EPSS) official 2026-06-27
s4 Semgrep Secrets product page (semantic and entropy analysis, validation)
“Go beyond regex: leverage Semantic Analysis, entropy analysis, and validation to accurately detect and fix secrets. Leverage Semgrep's data flow engine to understand what credentials exist and how they are being used.”
official 2026-06-27
s5 Semgrep About page (founders, 2017 founding, named customers)
“Founded by Drew Dennison, Isaac Evans, and Luke O'Malley in 2017, the company's mission has been to profoundly improve software security from day 1.”
official 2026-06-27
s6 Semgrep GitHub repository (CE engine, 20000+ Pro rules, local analysis, ecosystem)
“The Semgrep AppSec Platform works out-of-the-box with 20000+ proprietary rules across SAST, SCA, and secrets. Semgrep analyzes code locally on your computer or in your build environment: by default, code is never uploaded.”
official 2026-06-27
s7 Semgrep pricing page (per-contributor rates, free tier, AI data-handling FAQ)
“Choose from: Code ($30/month/contributor) Supply Chain ($30/month/contributor) Secrets ($15/month/contributor)”
official 2026-06-27
s8 Semgrep Trust Portal (SOC 2 Type II, Include Security pentest, Qilin incident update)
“Semgrep Inc. is thrilled to announce our latest SOC 2 Type II report and our latest full-scope, whitebox penetration test (performed by Include Security). We have now completed post-incident investigations and confirmed the threat actor did not access customer findings or source code.”
official 2026-06-27
s9 SiliconANGLE: Code security startup Semgrep reels in $100M from investors (Maria Deutscher, February 5, 2025)
“Menlo Ventures led the Series D investment. The company's total outside funding now stands at $204 million.”
press 2026-06-27
s10 Dark Reading: Code-Scanning Tool's License at Heart of Security Breakup (Robert Lemos)
“The triggering event for the open source split came on Dec. 13, when Semgrep outlined changes... removing the ability of the Community Edition to export certain fields in common output formats, such as JSON and the Static Analysis Results Interchange Format (SARIF).”
press 2026-06-27
s11 InfoQ: Opengrep Forks Semgrep to Liberate Rulesets After License Change (Matt Saunders)
“A consortium of software companies, including JIT and Orca Security, has launched Opengrep, a fork of Semgrep's open-source software, in response to licensing changes for rules provided in the OSS version.”
press 2026-06-27
s12 Semgrep*: Improving the Limited Performance of SAST Tools (EASE 2024, peer-reviewed)
“the vulnerability detection rates of individual tools range from 11.2% to 26.5%, but combining these four tools can detect 38.8% of vulnerabilities. Our newly configured Semgrep tool detects 44.7% of vulnerabilities, a 181% improvement in Semgrep's detection rate.”
research 2026-06-27
s13 QASecClaw: Multi-Agent LLM False Positive Reduction in SAST (arXiv preprint, May 2026, Semgrep backbone)
“QASecClaw achieves an F1-score of 90.93%, compared with 78.39% for standalone Semgrep. This improvement is mainly driven by an 88.6% reduction in false positives, from 560 to 64.”
research 2026-06-27
s14 NVD CVE-2023-32758 (ReDoS in giturlparse as used in Semgrep)
“giturlparse (aka git-url-parse) through 1.2.2, as used in Semgrep 1.5.2 through 1.24.1, is vulnerable to ReDoS (Regular Expression Denial of Service) if parsing untrusted URLs.”
other 2026-06-27
s15 AppSec Santa independent Semgrep review (CE vs Platform, benchmark, customers, GitHub stars)
“Semgrep Community Edition (CE) is a free, open-source SAST engine (LGPL-2.1) scanning 30+ languages with 3,000+ community rules, single-file analysis only. Semgrep Code detects 72% of vulnerabilities in WebGoat vs 48% with CE alone. Used by Dropbox, Figma, Snowflake; 15,555 GitHub stars.”
press 2026-06-27
s16 Semgrep announces recognition in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for AST (PR Newswire, October 14, 2025)
“today announced it has been recognized in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Application Security Testing for the first time.”
press 2026-06-27
s17 Checkmarx One pricing page (custom-quote-only, no public rate)
“Pricing is based on developers, apps, and usage. Your dedicated rep will build a precise proposal.”
official 2026-06-27
s18 Black Duck SCA pricing page (quote-request form, no public rate)
“Get a no-obligation quote, customized to your needs.”
official 2026-06-27

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