CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

HiddenLayer vs Zenity

HiddenLayer sells AI security that analyzes AI applications, models, and assets, identifies their risks, and protects them as teams build. 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 model and agent security. 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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  • HiddenLayer
  • Zenity
HiddenLayer vs Zenity: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
HiddenLayerHiddenLayer sells AI security that analyzes AI applications, models, and assets, identifies their risks, and protects them as teams build.hiddenlayer.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
  • Model Scanning[1][4][6]Scans third-party and proprietary machine learning models to detect hidden risks.
  • Red Teaming[1][6][10]Runs continuous testing intended to identify threats early and validate AI defenses.
  • AI Guardrails[1][11]Applies policy-based controls intended to prevent misuse, data leakage and adversarial attacks on AI systems.
  • Agentic and MCP Protection[1][4][5][6]Monitors autonomous AI agents and MCP connections and is intended to guard against rogue behavior.
  • 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
Austin, United States[2]Not stated on its pages
Founded
2022[2]2021[2]
Ownership and funding
Privately held[3]Privately held[3][6][17]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • August 12, 2026HiddenLayer announced the appointment of Mike Gesnaldo as Chief Revenue Officer.[14]
  • 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
HiddenLayer describes securing AI used for fraud detection, trading, compliance, and customer engagement. HiddenLayer offers protection of agentic, generative, and predictive AI systems for mission assurance. HiddenLayer describes deployment through APIs, gateways, SDKs, or lightweight on-device integrations.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

  • AI model and agent security is the primary category of both HiddenLayer and Zenity.
  • Both are privately held.

Where they differ, field by field

  • HiddenLayer is also filed under AI firewalls and guardrails. Zenity is also filed under AI governance.
  • HiddenLayer lists Model Scanning, Red Teaming, AI Guardrails and Agentic and MCP Protection. Zenity lists AI Observability, AI Security Posture Management (AISPM), Boundaries, AI Detection and Response (AIDR) and Zenity Security Assessment Hub.
  • HiddenLayer is headquartered in Austin, United States.
  • HiddenLayer was founded in 2022. Zenity was founded in 2021.

How they differ

CISO Tribune files HiddenLayer under AI model and agent security and AI firewalls and guardrails, and files Zenity under AI model and agent security and AI governance. HiddenLayer sells Model Scanning, Red Teaming, AI Guardrails, and Agentic and MCP Protection. Its scanning covers model files for malware, CVEs, backdoors, and integrity issues before deployment. Zenity sells AI Observability, AI Security Posture Management, Boundaries, AI Detection and Response, and the Zenity Security Assessment Hub. Its focus is AI agents, which it governs across SaaS platforms, home-grown agentic platforms in the cloud, and end-user devices.

The two overlap on runtime protection for agents and on MCP usage. Zenity adds posture checks on agents in platforms like Microsoft Copilot Studio, ChatGPT Enterprise, and Salesforce Agentforce. HiddenLayer describes deployment through APIs, gateways, SDKs, or lightweight on-device integrations.

HiddenLayer is headquartered in Austin, was founded in 2022, and is privately held. Zenity was founded in 2021 and is privately held. Zenity announced a $125 million Series C round led by Norwest on August 3, 2026. HiddenLayer describes securing AI used for fraud detection, trading, compliance, and customer engagement. On August 12, 2026, HiddenLayer announced a new Chief Revenue Officer. On September 23, 2026, Zenity was named a Market Shaper in Gartner's inaugural Emerging Market Quadrant for AI Application Security.

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 HiddenLayer and Zenity

What do HiddenLayer and Zenity sell?
HiddenLayer sells Model Scanning, Red Teaming, AI Guardrails and Agentic and MCP Protection. Zenity sells AI Observability, AI Security Posture Management (AISPM), Boundaries, AI Detection and Response (AIDR) and Zenity Security Assessment Hub.
Are HiddenLayer and Zenity in the same category?
Yes. AI model and agent security is the primary category of both on CISO Tribune.
Where are HiddenLayer and Zenity headquartered?
HiddenLayer is headquartered in Austin, United States.
When were HiddenLayer and Zenity founded?
HiddenLayer was founded in 2022. Zenity was founded in 2021.
Who owns HiddenLayer and Zenity?
HiddenLayer is privately held. Zenity is privately held.
Who are HiddenLayer and Zenity sold to?
HiddenLayer describes securing AI used for fraud detection, trading, compliance, and customer engagement. Zenity describes a global financial services firm and a global asset manager as organizations that write policy rules for agents.
What have HiddenLayer and Zenity announced recently?
August 12, 2026: HiddenLayer announced the appointment of Mike Gesnaldo as Chief Revenue Officer. September 23, 2026: Zenity was named a Market Shaper in Gartner's inaugural Emerging Market Quadrant for AI Application Security.

About HiddenLayer

HiddenLayer sells AI security that analyzes AI applications, models, and assets, identifies their risks, and protects them as teams build. HiddenLayer builds an inventory of the AI applications, models, and assets in a customer environment. HiddenLayer offers a firewall that monitors, detects, and responds in real time to adversarial threats on agentic and generative AI applications. HiddenLayer continually identifies threats and validates defenses for agentic and generative AI applications.[1]

HiddenLayer says developers are embedding AI into tools and workflows faster than security teams can track. HiddenLayer says third-party models introduce unknown code and vulnerabilities. HiddenLayer says coding agents can read sensitive files, execute shell commands, install dependencies, or expose credentials. HiddenLayer says attackers can manipulate AI systems through prompts, retrieved content, tool output, or other untrusted inputs.[1][4][5]

HiddenLayer automatically builds a living inventory of AI across an environment, including shadow AI. HiddenLayer scans cloud accounts, repos, endpoints, and pipelines to detect every model and associated agent. HiddenLayer scans AWS, Azure, GCP, VMs, containers, and APIs for AI assets. HiddenLayer automatically associates AI assets with owners, business units, sensitivity, and risk levels. HiddenLayer aligns AI assets with NIST, OWASP, and ATLAS frameworks.[6][7]

HiddenLayer analyzes models for malware, vulnerabilities, backdoors, and unknown components before they reach production. HiddenLayer scans model files and URLs for malware, CVEs, backdoors, and integrity issues before deployment. HiddenLayer analyzes architectures, layers, weights, and artifacts for tampering or anomalies. HiddenLayer tests commercial models for safety and security before integration. HiddenLayer identifies where models come from, including origin and licensing.[4][6][7][8]

HiddenLayer continuously tests AI systems against evolving attacks and uncovers weaknesses early. HiddenLayer tests for jailbreaks, injection, role confusion, and harmful response patterns. HiddenLayer probes for extraction of PHI, PII, or proprietary data. HiddenLayer simulates unauthorized actions through agent tools and APIs.[6][9][10]

HiddenLayer detects and responds to AI attacks in production. HiddenLayer monitors prompts, outputs, memory, and agent actions in real time to detect and block prompt injection, data leakage, model theft, and unsafe tool use. HiddenLayer observes and reconstructs agent interactions across tools, data, and workflows in real time. HiddenLayer detects, blocks, or redacts unsafe actions and sensitive information according to policy and platform capabilities. HiddenLayer integrates runtime detections and enforcement events with existing SIEM, SOAR, and security operations workflows. HiddenLayer extends Runtime Security into AI coding agents through lightweight, on-device integration.[5][6][10]

HiddenLayer enforces boundaries around content, toxicity, bias, and regulatory restrictions. HiddenLayer detects and prevents PII, PHI, and proprietary data exposure in generated content. HiddenLayer enforces safe, compliant, and policy aligned AI behavior across applications, models, and business units. HiddenLayer combines safety guardrails with real time threat detection and prompt injection blocking. HiddenLayer protects autonomous agents and MCP based systems from prompt injection, unsafe tool use, and harmful autonomous actions.[1][6][11]

HiddenLayer says its platform deploys across any architecture without exposing intellectual property, weights, prompts, or customer data. HiddenLayer offers deployment through APIs, gateways, SDKs, or lightweight on-device integrations. HiddenLayer offers services modeled after active adversarial campaigns targeting enterprise AI applications. HiddenLayer services evaluate every layer from AI asset discovery to data and model supply chains to runtime environments. HiddenLayer services provide detailed remediation playbooks tailored to models, infrastructure, and compliance needs. HiddenLayer services work in concert with the HiddenLayer AI Security Platform for ongoing protection. HiddenLayer services align with emerging AI governance standards, including NIST AI RMF and EU AI Act requirements.[4][6][12]

HiddenLayer describes securing AI used for fraud detection, trading, compliance, and customer engagement. HiddenLayer describes establishing governance controls aligned with FFIEC and OCC frameworks. HiddenLayer detects malware, tampered artifacts, and backdoored weights in pretrained models and libraries. HiddenLayer protects agentic, generative, and predictive AI systems for mission assurance.[1][4][6][10][13]

HiddenLayer on the record

Sources

HiddenLayer full record

  1. [1]HiddenLayer | Total AI SecurityHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Hiddenlayer launches the first security solution to protect ai powered products 301587864HiddenLayer via PR Newswire · prnewswire.com · published July 19, 2022 · Tier A
  3. [3]Hiddenlayer 100m series b ai securityHiddenLayer · hiddenlayer.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Application Developers | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]AI Runtime Security | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Platform | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]AI Discovery | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]AI Supply Chain Security | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]AI Attack Simulation | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]CISO | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]AI Guardrails | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Services | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Financial Services | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]HiddenLayer Appoints Mike Gesnaldo as Chief Revenue OfficerHiddenLayer · published August 12, 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

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