CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Cranium vs Cygrid

Cranium sells Cranium ONE, one platform for end-to-end AI security and governance, which it describes as infrastructure and LLM-agnostic. Cygrid sells a platform that finds shadow AI, over-scoped tokens and leftover admin rights across SaaS, checks every action by humans, service accounts and AI agents, and secures actions by applying customer policy. 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.

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  • Cranium
  • Cygrid
Cranium vs Cygrid: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
CraniumCranium sells Cranium ONE, one platform for end-to-end AI security and governance, which it describes as infrastructure and LLM-agnostic.cranium.aiCygridCygrid sells a platform that finds shadow AI, over-scoped tokens and leftover admin rights across SaaS, checks every action by humans, service accounts and AI agents, and secures actions by applying customer policy.cygrid.io
What it sells
  • Discover[1][16]Gives visibility into every AI model, agent, dataset and vendor across an enterprise and builds a system of record for them.
  • Govern[1][3][4][5][8][12]Defines, implements and enforces AI policy mapped to frameworks such as the NIST AI RMF and the EU AI Act.
  • Secure[1][6][13]Stress-tests models against adversarial threats and applies runtime defenses and targeted remediation.
  • Prove[1][7]Generates real-time compliance evidence, called Cranium AI Cards, to share with customers, partners and regulators.
  • Identity Intelligence Graph[1][4]Holds humans, non-human identities, AI agents, tokens, MCP servers and resources in one graph.
  • MCP Gateway[3][8]Sits in the tool-call path and audits, allows, rewrites or blocks every agent tool call at runtime.
Categories
Headquarters
Short Hills, United States[3]Berlin, Germany[2]
Founded
Not stated on its pages2026[2][3]
Ownership and funding
Privately held[9][15]Not stated on its pages
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • May 21, 2026Cranium AI and ISTARI announced a strategic partnership combining Cranium AI's security and governance platform with ISTARI's cyber resilience advisory expertise.[3]
  • May 21, 2026Cranium AI announced it has acquired Aiceberg, an agentic AI security and risk management company, and Aiceberg CEO Alex Schlager becomes Cranium AI's Chief Technology Officer.[15]
  • May 21, 2026Cranium AI and ISTARI, a cyber resilience advisory firm, announced a strategic partnership to offer organizations an AI security and governance solution.[8]
  • February 4, 2026Cranium AI announced it discovered an exploitation technique for hijacking agentic AI coding assistants and released free open-source IDE plugins for developers.[16]
Not stated on its pages
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: listed, seen October 24, 2026[9]
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, the company sells mainly to buyers who run AI across many models, since it states that its platform works with any model, any framework. It has pages for industries named Financial Services, Life Sciences and Telecommunications. It also has pages by job function for Compliance & Risk, Governance & Policy, Third-Party & Vendor Risk and Data Science. The pages also say that global carriers and banks are on board.Finance teams whose AI agents work with ledger and bank data are among the audiences it addresses. Mid-sized retailers that run several stores are among the audiences it addresses. IT operations teams dealing with unused accounts, standing admin rights and forgotten tokens across SaaS are an audience, as are security and compliance teams that need evidence for NIS2, DORA and the EU AI Act.
Last verified
September 27, 2026October 23, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Cranium and Cygrid are both filed under AI governance.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Cranium's primary category is AI governance; Cygrid's is Non-human identity security.
  • Cranium is also filed under AI model and agent security. Cygrid is also filed under AI firewalls and guardrails and Identity threat detection and response.
  • Cranium lists Discover, Govern, Secure and Prove. Cygrid lists Identity Intelligence Graph and MCP Gateway.
  • Cranium is headquartered in Short Hills, United States. Cygrid is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.
  • Cygrid was founded in 2026.
  • Cranium is privately held.

What it sells: Cygrid

What Identity Intelligence Graph does[1][4]
Cygrid models the action, meaning the permission actually in play, in full context. The graph models access as SaaS actions rather than roles, so risk can be compared across tools.

Questions about Cranium and Cygrid

What do Cranium and Cygrid sell?
Cranium sells Discover, Govern, Secure and Prove. Cygrid sells Identity Intelligence Graph and MCP Gateway.
Are Cranium and Cygrid in the same category?
They share AI governance. Cranium's primary category is AI governance and Cygrid's is Non-human identity security.
Where are Cranium and Cygrid headquartered?
Cranium is headquartered in Short Hills, United States. Cygrid is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.
When were Cranium and Cygrid founded?
Cygrid was founded in 2026.
Who owns Cranium and Cygrid?
Cranium is privately held.
Who are Cranium and Cygrid sold to?
From its own pages, the company sells mainly to buyers who run AI across many models, since it states that its platform works with any model, any framework. Finance teams whose AI agents work with ledger and bank data are among the audiences it addresses.
What have Cranium and Cygrid announced recently?
May 21, 2026: Cranium AI and ISTARI announced a strategic partnership combining Cranium AI's security and governance platform with ISTARI's cyber resilience advisory expertise.

About Cranium

Cranium sells Cranium ONE, one platform for end-to-end AI security and governance, which it describes as infrastructure and LLM-agnostic. Cranium organizes the platform around the AI Trust Loop, five stages that run continuously: Discover, Observe, Govern, Secure and Prove.[1][4][5][6]

Cranium says AI adoption expands what an enterprise has to defend. Its pages name three problem areas: shadow AI, autonomous agents and third-party AI. Cranium says teams adopt models and copilots faster than security can see them, and that agents plan, call tools, read memory and hand off to other agents. Cranium also says an AI supply chain runs through vendors a buyer does not control.[1]

In the Discover stage, Cranium says a buyer gains visibility into every AI model, agent, dataset and vendor across the enterprise and builds one living system of record. Cranium describes automated AI discovery and inventory, and an AI Bill of Materials for each system.[1][10]

In the Observe stage, Cranium says buyers can track, evaluate and understand complex model and agent behaviors, along with token usage and cost efficiency. Cranium describes sessions views, sequence diagrams of agent tool calls and event-level drill-downs. It cites 100+ risk signals and 250+ intent classifications. Cranium says verdicts come from deterministic classifiers, and that Trace shows the samples, labels and relevance scores behind each decision.[1][6][11]

In the Govern stage, Cranium says buyers can define, implement and enforce AI policy, mapped to NIST AI RMF, the EU AI Act and internal standards. Cranium also names ISO 42001 as a mapped framework. Cranium ComplianceAgent automates framework completion with human oversight, and continuous compliance scoring shows where each system stands.[1][12]

In the Secure stage, Cranium says buyers can stress-test models against real-world threats, surface vulnerabilities and apply targeted controls before and after deployment. Cranium Arena is its agent-based red teaming, using MITRE ATLAS, OWASP and Cranium AI threat libraries. Cranium Arena Shield turns findings into auto-generated remediations and guardrails, and re-tests to verify the fix.[1][13]

In the Prove stage, Cranium says buyers can demonstrate compliance posture on demand and share evidence with customers, partners and regulators through real-time Cranium AI Cards and Trust Hubs.[1][14]

Cranium says it fits its controls to finance, life sciences and telecom. Cranium states that it is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and ISO 27001 certified, and an active member of the U.S AI Safety Institute Consortium (AISIC), established by NIST.[1][2][5][10]

Cranium on the record

Sources

Cranium full record

  1. [1]Cranium – Secure & Govern Enterprise AICranium · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Cranium ai security 2023KPMG · kpmg.com · published April 5, 2023 · Tier A
  3. [3]Cranium AI and ISTARI Forge Global Alliance to Drive Enterprise AI Security and GovernanceCranium · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]AI Security & Governance Platform – CraniumCranium · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]AI Security & Governance Solutions – CraniumCranium · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Enterprise AI Security Solutions – CraniumCranium · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]AI Compliance — EU AI Act, NIST & ISO 42001 – CraniumCranium · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Cranium AI and ISTARI Forge Global Alliance to Drive Enterprise AI Security and GovernanceBusiness Wire · published May 21, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Cranium Reviews, Ratings & Features 2026 | Gartner Peer InsightsGartner Peer Insights · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier C
  10. [10]For Security Teams – Cranium AICranium · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]AI Observability & Runtime Monitoring – Cranium AICranium · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]AI Governance & Policy Enforcement – Cranium AICranium · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]AI Red Teaming & Attack Simulation – Cranium AICranium · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]For Compliance & Risk Leaders – Cranium AICranium · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Cranium AI Acquires Aiceberg to Strengthen its End-to-End AI Security, Governance and Agentic AI PlatformCranium AI · published May 21, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]Cranium AI Issues Critical Remediation for Vulnerability to Protect Leading AI Coding AssistantsBusiness Wire · published February 4, 2026 · Tier A

Cygrid full record

  1. [1]cygrid.ioCygrid · cygrid.io · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]AboutCygrid · cygrid.io · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Cygrid emerges from stealthCygrid · cygrid.io · published October 22, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Identity Enforcement for AI-Driven Enterprises | CygridCygrid · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Identity Enforcement Platform | CygridCygrid · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Least Privilege Across Your SaaS | CygridCygrid · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Identity Intelligence Graph | CygridCygrid · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]MCP Gateway for AI Agents | CygridCygrid · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Secure AI Agent Rollout for AI Teams | CygridCygrid · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Identity Enforcement Use Cases | CygridCygrid · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Integrations: Okta, Entra ID, SaaS & AI | CygridCygrid · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Identity Policy Enforcement & Compliance | CygridCygrid · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Identity Enforcement for Fintech & NIS2/DORA | CygridCygrid · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Identity Enforcement for E-commerce | CygridCygrid · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

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