CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Archer vs Zenity

Archer sells a governance, risk and compliance platform that connects enterprise risk, compliance, audit, AI governance, ESG, third-party risk and resilience on shared data and one reporting layer. Zenity sells an AI agent security platform built to govern how agents behave, not just what they say or generate. CISO Tribune files both under AI governance. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

Change the companies

Up to four companies side by side.

  • Archer
  • Zenity
Archer vs Zenity: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
ArcherArcher sells a governance, risk and compliance platform that connects enterprise risk, compliance, audit, AI governance, ESG, third-party risk and resilience on shared data and one reporting layer.archerirm.comZenityZenity sells an AI agent security platform built to govern how agents behave, not just what they say or generate.zenity.io
What it sells
  • IT & Security Risk Management[1]A module that helps organizations manage IT and security risk within the Archer platform.
  • AI Governance[1][2]A module for governing the use and risk of artificial intelligence within an organization.
  • Third-Party Governance[1]A module that manages risk related to third-party vendors and suppliers.
  • Audit Management[1]A module that supports internal audit processes and documentation.
  • Enterprise & Operational Risk[1]A module for tracking and managing enterprise-wide and operational risks.
  • Regulatory & Corporate Compliance[1]A module that helps organizations manage regulatory and corporate compliance obligations.
  • AI Observability[5]Builds a live inventory of every agent across an organization's environment and tracks the data those agents access.
  • AI Security Posture Management (AISPM)[7]Evaluates configuration, permissions, and integrations before an agent goes live.
  • Boundaries[4][6][8]Evaluates every agent action in real time against an organization's rules and decides to let it through, block it, or shut the agent down.
  • AI Detection and Response (AIDR)[9]AIDR reads the full sequence of an agent's activity, detecting threats mapped to the OWASP LLM and MITRE ATLAS frameworks.
  • Zenity Security Assessment Hub[13]A set of 10 free, open-source tools built by Zenity Labs to help security teams identify and understand immediate risks.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Founded
Not stated on its pages2021[2]
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesPrivately held[3][6][17]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
Not stated on its pages
  • September 23, 2026Zenity was named a Market Shaper in Gartner's inaugural Emerging Market Quadrant for AI Application Security.[15]
  • August 3, 2026Zenity announced a $125 million Series C round led by Norwest.[14]
  • June 17, 2026Zenity and Carahsoft announced a partnership under which Carahsoft serves as Zenity's Public Sector distributor.[17]
  • March 17, 2026Zenity announced general availability of runtime security controls for AI agents built on Microsoft Foundry.[16]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
Archer states that it delivers enterprise capabilities for companies of all sizes. Archer says its products are designed to meet the needs of GRC teams and business users, and its IT risk material describes roles from IT risk analyst to enterprise risk officer. Archer Evolv can be deployed on-premises or as SaaS.Zenity describes a global financial services firm and a global asset manager as organizations that write policy rules for agents. Zenity covers agents embedded in SaaS tools, home-grown agentic platforms in the cloud, and end-user devices. Zenity gives security and platform teams a single place to surface, enforce, and protect MCP usage.
Last verified
November 2, 2026November 9, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Archer and Zenity are both filed under AI governance.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Archer's primary category is GRC and integrated risk platforms; Zenity's is AI model and agent security.
  • Archer is also filed under Third-party risk and security ratings.
  • Archer lists IT & Security Risk Management, AI Governance, Third-Party Governance, Audit Management, Enterprise & Operational Risk and 1 more. Zenity lists AI Observability, AI Security Posture Management (AISPM), Boundaries, AI Detection and Response (AIDR) and Zenity Security Assessment Hub.
  • Zenity was founded in 2021.
  • Zenity is privately held.

What it sells: Zenity

What AI Observability does[5]
AI Observability is Zenity's discovery and visibility layer for AI agents. Data Lens surfaces sensitive files and pages that are both frequently accessed and broadly exposed across agents.
What AI Security Posture Management (AISPM) does[7]
AISPM evaluates configuration and permissions for agents embedded in platforms like Microsoft Copilot Studio, ChatGPT Enterprise, and Salesforce Agentforce. AISPM applies stricter enforcement in production and more flexible policy in development or sandbox environments.
What Boundaries does[4][6][8]
Boundaries is Zenity's runtime enforcement engine. A rule written once in Boundaries is enforced on Copilot, ChatGPT Enterprise, Agentforce, Bedrock, coding agents, and homegrown builds. Boundaries includes a built-in AI assistant that turns a plain-language request into a working rule.
What AI Detection and Response (AIDR) does[9]
AI Detection and Response (AIDR) is Zenity's runtime security layer for AI agents. AIDR detects direct and indirect prompt injection and blocks execution before the agent acts on them. AIDR breaks every agent interaction into individual steps and groups them by thread in a single activity table.
What Zenity Security Assessment Hub does[13]
The Zenity Security Assessment Hub is built by Zenity Labs. The tools take a Red-Team approach to visualize threats across Microsoft 365, with a focus on 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, and Power Platform.

Questions about Archer and Zenity

What do Archer and Zenity sell?
Archer sells IT & Security Risk Management, AI Governance, Third-Party Governance, Audit Management, Enterprise & Operational Risk and 1 more. Zenity sells AI Observability, AI Security Posture Management (AISPM), Boundaries, AI Detection and Response (AIDR) and Zenity Security Assessment Hub.
Are Archer and Zenity in the same category?
They share AI governance. Archer's primary category is GRC and integrated risk platforms and Zenity's is AI model and agent security.
When were Archer and Zenity founded?
Zenity was founded in 2021.
Who owns Archer and Zenity?
Zenity is privately held.
Who are Archer and Zenity sold to?
Archer states that it delivers enterprise capabilities for companies of all sizes. Zenity describes a global financial services firm and a global asset manager as organizations that write policy rules for agents.
What have Archer and Zenity announced recently?
September 23, 2026: Zenity was named a Market Shaper in Gartner's inaugural Emerging Market Quadrant for AI Application Security.

About Archer

Archer sells a governance, risk and compliance platform that connects enterprise risk, compliance, audit, AI governance, ESG, third-party risk and resilience on shared data and one reporting layer. Archer brings risk, controls, obligations and evidence into one governed system. Archer says regulatory change moves faster than teams can interpret, assess and operationalize it. More than 1,500 organizations run on Archer, including half the Fortune 500.[2][3]

Archer Evolv adds AI-powered intelligence to an existing GRC program and connects regulatory change obligations, controls, policies and assurance evidence. Archer Evolv can be deployed standalone or alongside Archer GRC, on-premises or SaaS. Archer describes a system of record, a system of intelligence and a system of outcomes as one connected foundation that uses existing permissions and audit trail. Archer Evolv turns data from the GRC environment into governed intelligence with AI operators.[3][6]

Workplace is where Evolv operators run, and each operator handles one governed task, such as mapping a new obligation to the controls it touches. In Archer, a reviewer approves the result of an operator before it reaches the customer's controls. Archer Evolv operators run third-party reviews end to end, monitor vendors between assessments and enforce the customer's requirements. Archer Evolv operators monitor technology risks, controls and issues, enforce the customer's standards and rank what needs attention first. Archer monitors 8,000+ regulatory sources across 180 jurisdictions, from SEC and FINRA to DORA, and flags what applies to a business.[3][4]

Archer Evolv assesses each citation against a customer's jurisdictions, products and legal entities. A wizard in Archer captures a customer's jurisdictions, entities, products and themes, and assesses each incoming citation against that profile. Archer parses citations, rulebooks, statutes and a customer's own policies into discrete obligations, each linked to its type, its theme and its source citation. Archer clusters up to 10,000 obligations per assessment by meaning. Archer compares a customer's obligations against the controls it already holds, names the gaps and conflicts and proposes a resolution. Archer Evolv extracts obligations, maps them to controls and business units, routes the assessment to named owners and publishes the result into Archer.[5]

Archer turns regulations and a customer's policies into live AWS Bedrock guardrails that are enforced before the model is invoked. Guardrails are deployed as drafts and go live only after the customer approves them. Traffic is evaluated against guardrails before inference inside the customer's AWS account, and violations are blocked and logged as a governed control breach. Every deployed guardrail is tested on a cycle against the control the customer approved. Findings from each violation route into Archer issue management workflows. Prompt content, model responses, documents, embeddings, customer PII and model weights do not reach Archer, and only the violation event does.[6]

Archer's IT and security risk offering has nine interconnected use cases with workflows that move findings and controls from assessment through closure. Archer's IT risk register catalogs the organization and its IT assets and logs each IT risk against the systems it touches. Archer tests IT controls on a project schedule and pulls in results from automated systems. Archer ranks threats and vulnerabilities by what they put at risk in the business, using asset context and scan results. Archer ships current security frameworks and control catalogs with the use case, including the ISO 27000 series, COBIT 5, the NIST 800 series and PCI DSS. Archer rolls test results up to the primary control and reports compliance for each control set separately. Archer stores evidence in a versioned repository as tests run, tied to the control and the standard it serves.[7][8]

Archer gives financial institutions one connected view of obligations, controls and risk. Archer connects regulatory compliance, third-party risk, operational risk and IT security in one system. Archer helps government agencies unify FedRAMP, CMMC and FISMA obligations. Every control in Archer links back to the exact FedRAMP, CMMC or FISMA requirement it satisfies, and every AI output goes through Expert-in-the-Loop review. Archer tests controls against live evidence, flags a gap as it appears, routes it to an owner and keeps a time-stamped record. Archer translates risk into financial terms based on modeled loss exposure and stated assumptions. Archer states SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 and describes 25+ years as a system of record. The Archer Vulnerability Response Team coordinates the response and disclosure for all product vulnerabilities reported to Archer.[2][3][4][6][7][8][9][10]

Archer on the record

Sources

Archer full record

  1. [1]archerirm.comArcher · archerirm.com · undated page, accessed November 2, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]About Archer – GRC & Risk Management Solutions | ArcherArcher · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Archer® | Regulatory Change ManagementArcher · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Financial Services | ArcherArcher · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Archer Evolv Compliance for AI-Powered Enterprise ComplianceArcher · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Archer Evolv™ AI Compliance | ArcherArcher · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]IT & Security Risk Management | ArcherArcher · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Archer Regulatory & Corporate Compliance ManagementArcher · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Government GRC Solutions | ArcherArcher · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Vulnerability Response Policy | ArcherArcher · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

Zenity full record

  1. [1]AI Agent Security and Governance | Zenity AI Security PlatformZenity · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Zenity announces strategic investment led by m12Zenity · zenity.io · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Zenity raises 38m series b funding round to secure agentic aiZenity · zenity.io · published October 29, 2024 · Tier A
  4. [4]AI Agent Security & Governance Platform for the Enterprise | ZenityZenity · undated page, accessed October 30, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]AI Observability | Zenity AI Security PlatformZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]AI Agent Security | Model Context Protocol (MCP) | ZenityZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]AI Security Posture Management | Zenity AI Security PlatformZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Runtime Boundaries | Zenity AI Security PlatformZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]AI Detection and Response (AIDRZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Agentic Identity & Access Management: Zenity AI Security PlatformZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Securing Financial Services AI | Zenity, Microsoft & SlalomZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Company | Zenity | Secure AI Agents EverywhereZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Zenity Security Assessment Hub | Zenity | Secure AI Agents EverywhereZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Zenity Raises $125 Million to Secure the Era of 1 Billion AI AgentsZenity · published August 3, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Zenity Named a Market Shaper in Gartner’s Inaugural Emerging Market Quadrant for AI Application SecurityZenity · published September 23, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]Zenity Announces Availability of Inline Agent Runtime Security for Agents Built on Microsoft FoundryZenity · published March 17, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]Zenity and Carahsoft Bring AI Agent Security and Governance to Federal, State and Local AgenciesZenity · published June 17, 2026 · Tier A

Spot a factual error? Request a correction.