CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Impart Security vs Neo

Impart Security sells programmable, deterministic Layer 7 protection across AI, applications and APIs. Neo sells security for AI and agentic software across every endpoint, SaaS app, and cloud service. 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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Up to four companies side by side.

  • Impart Security
  • Neo
Impart Security vs Neo: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
Impart SecurityImpart Security sells programmable, deterministic Layer 7 protection across AI, applications and APIs.impart.aiNeoNeo sells security for AI and agentic software across every endpoint, SaaS app, and cloud service.neo.ai
What it sells
  • Agent Protection[3][10]Enforces application-specific policies on agent traffic and tool interactions.
  • API Security[5][8][10]Enforces controls based on how APIs behave across requests and sessions.
  • Runtime Defense Harness[10]Uses AI-assisted investigation to develop targeted virtual patches.
  • Neo Node[3][5][6]Enforces policy on the laptop, on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Decides each agent action with allow, ask, or block.
  • Neo Console[6]Starts from a customer's organization and its teams, taken from the identity provider.
  • Neoverse[1][3][5][6]The intelligence layer for AI apps and tools.
Categories
Headquarters
San Francisco, United StatesNot stated on its pages
Founded
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Privately heldPrivately held[3]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
Not stated on its pages
  • July 20, 2026Neo emerged from stealth with $100 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Craft Ventures and Merlin Ventures.[7]
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
Impart describes protection that runs inside an organisation's existing ingress. The stated coverage spans AI, applications and APIs. Impart also describes integrating its protection into existing ingress and egress infrastructure, with policies and runtime state synchronized across distributed environments.From its own pages, the company sells mainly to organisations that need to know which AI agents run on their fleet and what each one can reach. Neo describes examples from a healthcare SaaS company and a fintech. Neo Node deploys through an MDM that the customer already runs. Neo Console takes the organization and its teams from the customer's identity provider. Neo enforces policy on laptops running macOS, Windows, and Linux, and extends the same policy to SaaS apps and cloud deployments.
Last verified
September 27, 2026November 9, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Impart Security and Neo are both filed under AI model and agent security.
  • Both are privately held.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Impart Security's primary category is AI firewalls and guardrails; Neo's is AI model and agent security.
  • Impart Security is also filed under Bot and abuse management. Neo is also filed under Workforce AI usage security, AI governance and Software supply chain security.
  • Impart Security lists Agent Protection, API Security and Runtime Defense Harness. Neo lists Neo Node, Neo Console and Neoverse.
  • Impart Security is headquartered in San Francisco, United States.

What it sells: Impart Security

What Agent Protection does[3][10]
Agent Protection enforces application-specific policies on agent traffic and tool interactions, using runtime context to restrict unauthorized actions and access. Agent Protection runs on the same ingress-layer enforcement engine that inspects the full attack surface.
What API Security does[5][8][10]
API Security enforces controls based on how APIs behave across requests and sessions, not just individual request signatures. Impart applies inline, sequence-aware enforcement to every API call. API Security detects and blocks shadow APIs as they are accessed. API Security prevents sensitive data (PII) from leaving the system.
What Runtime Defense Harness does[10]
Runtime Defense Harness uses AI-assisted investigation to develop targeted virtual patches and deploy protection through the same engine already protecting the applications. Targeted virtual patches are generated and tested against runtime traffic, with Policy as Code validated before deployment. AI-generated virtual patches are informed by runtime behavior, tested against live traffic and enforced through programmable Layer 7 controls.

What it sells: Neo

What Neo Node does[3][5][6]
Neo Node deploys through the MDM a customer already runs, with no kernel module and no reboot. Neo Node reads the whole session rather than only the command. Inside Claude Code, Neo Node reads the model, MCP servers, skills and plugins that Claude Code loads.
What Neoverse does[1][3][5][6]
Neoverse checks every extension, package, skill, and MCP server before it runs. Neoverse rates an unsigned server loaded by an agent as Unsafe on first sight.

Questions about Impart Security and Neo

What do Impart Security and Neo sell?
Impart Security sells Agent Protection, API Security and Runtime Defense Harness. Neo sells Neo Node, Neo Console and Neoverse.
Are Impart Security and Neo in the same category?
They share AI model and agent security. Impart Security's primary category is AI firewalls and guardrails and Neo's is AI model and agent security.
Where are Impart Security and Neo headquartered?
Impart Security is headquartered in San Francisco, United States.
Who owns Impart Security and Neo?
Impart Security is privately held. Neo is privately held.
Who are Impart Security and Neo sold to?
Impart describes protection that runs inside an organisation's existing ingress. From its own pages, the company sells mainly to organisations that need to know which AI agents run on their fleet and what each one can reach.
What have Impart Security and Neo announced recently?
July 20, 2026: Neo emerged from stealth with $100 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Craft Ventures and Merlin Ventures.

About Impart Security

Impart Security sells programmable, deterministic Layer 7 protection across AI, applications and APIs. Impart enforces security policies directly in the application traffic path. Impart describes one programmable engine that unifies OWASP coverage, stateful behavioral analysis and custom security logic to block threats inline. Impart defines runtime enforcement as the ability to detect and block a threat at the moment the request is made, inline in the path of live traffic. Impart integrates programmable Layer 7 protection into existing ingress and egress infrastructure, enforces deterministic controls locally, and synchronizes policies and runtime state across distributed environments.[4][6][9][10]

For bots, Impart blocks credential stuffing, scraping and AI-driven automation with stateful controls that evaluate request patterns and session behavior. For agents, Impart enforces application-specific policies on agent traffic and tool interactions, using runtime context to restrict unauthorized actions and access. Impart detects and blocks shadow APIs as they are accessed. Impart's API enforcement prevents sensitive data (PII) from leaving the system.[8][10]

Impart sits between the agent and the customer's systems, enforcing security before any action executes. Agent protection runs on the same ingress-layer enforcement engine that inspects the full attack surface. Impart evaluates each prompt using session history, identity, prior model interactions and the chain of tool calls behind it. Impart's LLM enforcement sits inline between the caller and the model and runs before the prompt reaches inference. Impart builds a live catalog of every MCP server reaching the environment, sanctioned or not, and every tool exposed by each one. Policy-as-code in Impart applies the same way to AI clients, CLI users, web apps and direct API callers.[3][5][6][8]

Runtime Defense Harness uses AI-assisted investigation to develop targeted virtual patches and deploy protection through the same engine already protecting the applications. Impart generates and tests targeted virtual patches against runtime traffic, validating Policy as Code before deployment. Impart deploys custom virtual patches in under 60 minutes. Impart executes custom security logic inline using request context and shared session state, and blocks attacks without model inference in the traffic path.[4][10]

Impart runs inside the existing ingress, without adding an extra traffic hop or single point of failure. A lightweight module runs inside the existing ingress controller, capturing HTTP requests after TLS termination and passing them to a local inspector. If the inspector fails or times out, the module fails open. The Impart inspector runs locally alongside the ingress to evaluate request context, runtime state and custom security logic. Enforcement decisions in Impart are deterministic, and no AI inference or cloud round trip is required. Impart Cloud keeps policies and shared state in sync. Impart extends programmable Layer 7 protection to outbound AI requests and agent interactions through supported AI gateway infrastructure. Impart inspects traffic, applies custom security logic and protects sensitive data without replacing the existing gateway, routing or cost controls. The Impart Security plugin runs natively inside Kong Gateway, paired with an Impart Inspector running in the customer's own environment.[5][9][10]

Impart inspects every request to AI applications, web applications and APIs in the traffic path where it sits. The Impart integration with Wiz sends hosts to a Wiz tenant as Imported Assets, next to the cloud resources. Impart sends hostnames to Wiz and does not read Wiz issues, findings or resources. FanDuel replaced black-box security with Impart. Impart offered Crossbeam a single solution for web application, API security and LLM protection.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

Impart Security on the record

Sources

Impart Security full record

  1. [1]impart.aiImpart Security · impart.ai · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]impart.aiImpart Security · impart.ai · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Agent Protection - Control AI Agent Behavior | ImpartImpart Security · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]AI Runtime Defense | Impart Security PlatformImpart Security · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]LLM Protection | Deterministic Agent Controls | ImpartImpart Security · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]MCP Protection | Runtime Control for MCP Layer | ImpartImpart Security · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]WAF for the Agentic Era | Impart SecurityImpart Security · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]API Security for the Agentic Era | Impart SecurityImpart Security · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Integrations with Impart Security | Impart Security Runtime ProtectionImpart Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Programmable Layer 7 Firewall | Impart SecurityImpart Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

Neo full record

  1. [1]Neo launches with 100m to secure ai software across the enterpriseGlobeNewswire · globenewswire.com · published July 20, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]neo.aiNeo · neo.ai · undated page, accessed November 9, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Neo | Secure AI. From Endpoint to EverywhereNeo · undated page, accessed November 11, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Platform | NeoNeo · undated page, accessed November 11, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Why Neo | AI Control Starts at the EndpointNeo · undated page, accessed November 11, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]How It Works | NeoNeo · undated page, accessed November 11, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Neo Launches With $100M for AI Software SecurityNeo · published July 20, 2026 · Tier A

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