CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Mindgard vs Obsidian Security

Mindgard secures AI models, agents, and applications against exploitable threats. Obsidian Security sells real-time visibility, continuous governance and runtime enforcement over agents, identities and integrations across third-party apps. 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.

  • Mindgard
  • Obsidian Security
Mindgard vs Obsidian Security: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
MindgardMindgard secures AI models, agents, and applications against exploitable threats.mindgard.aiObsidian SecurityObsidian Security sells real-time visibility, continuous governance and runtime enforcement over agents, identities and integrations across third-party apps.obsidiansecurity.com
What it sells
  • AI Red Teaming[1][4][6][10]Mindgard's agentic platform red teams AI systems, agents, and infrastructure.
  • AI Security Expert[9]A subscription that gives a team direct access to a specialist.
  • Continuous GovernanceChecks each requirement, written once, in each connected app that exposes the data it needs.
Categories
Headquarters
Boston, United States[2]Not stated on its pages
Founded
2022[2][3]Not stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Privately held[2][3]Privately held[1]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • August 13, 2026Mindgard announced a $30M Series A funding round.[11]
  • March 17, 2026Mindgard announced an expansion of its AI security platform that adds a reconnaissance capability for AI models, agents and applications.[12]
  • August 4, 2026Obsidian Security said it raised $85 million in a Series D funding round that valued the company at $1.1 billion.[15]
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
Mindgard addresses organizations that secure the AI systems they build, buy and use. The offering is aimed at pen-testers who scale AI-focused security testing efforts, and at developers who integrate ongoing testing for secure AI deployments. Customer types shown include global insurance brokerages, healthcare AI platforms, global financial institutions, semiconductor manufacturers and enterprise technology services. Reporting is directed to security, engineering, GRC, and audit teams.From its own pages, Obsidian Security sells to security teams that must defend actions by identities they can barely enumerate, across apps they did not build, on infrastructure they do not control. Obsidian Security describes security teams at large financial services and technology companies adopting its product to detect account takeovers, SaaS threats and privilege misuse. Obsidian Security addresses enterprises whose data lives in third-party enterprise apps they do not own. Obsidian Security addresses organisations whose employees connect AI agents to business apps through MCP. Obsidian Security addresses organisations where each team picks its own AI agent tool.
Last verified
September 27, 2026November 4, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Mindgard and Obsidian Security are both filed under AI model and agent security.
  • Both are privately held.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Mindgard's primary category is AI model and agent security; Obsidian Security's is SaaS security posture.
  • Mindgard is also filed under AI firewalls and guardrails. Obsidian Security is also filed under Workforce AI usage security and Identity threat detection and response.
  • Mindgard lists AI Red Teaming and AI Security Expert. Obsidian Security lists Continuous Governance.
  • Mindgard is headquartered in Boston, United States.
  • Mindgard was founded in 2022.

What it sells: Mindgard

What AI Security Expert does[9]
The expert shows how to run posture assessments, enhance tooling usage, build adversarial skills, and co-pilot red teaming efforts. The subscription includes workshops that show security and data science teams how adversarial techniques work, how agentic systems fail, and how defensive controls can be applied.

What it sells: Obsidian Security

What Continuous Governance does
The control model includes mappings to NIST, CIS, ISO 27001, and GDPR. Supported controls are checked continuously, and changes are shown. Fixes are routed through Jira, ServiceNow, and other supported tools.

Questions about Mindgard and Obsidian Security

What do Mindgard and Obsidian Security sell?
Mindgard sells AI Red Teaming and AI Security Expert. Obsidian Security sells Continuous Governance.
Are Mindgard and Obsidian Security in the same category?
They share AI model and agent security. Mindgard's primary category is AI model and agent security and Obsidian Security's is SaaS security posture.
Where are Mindgard and Obsidian Security headquartered?
Mindgard is headquartered in Boston, United States.
When were Mindgard and Obsidian Security founded?
Mindgard was founded in 2022.
Who owns Mindgard and Obsidian Security?
Mindgard is privately held. Obsidian Security is privately held.
Who are Mindgard and Obsidian Security sold to?
Mindgard addresses organizations that secure the AI systems they build, buy and use. From its own pages, Obsidian Security sells to security teams that must defend actions by identities they can barely enumerate, across apps they did not build, on infrastructure they do not control.
What have Mindgard and Obsidian Security announced recently?
August 13, 2026: Mindgard announced a $30M Series A funding round. August 4, 2026: Obsidian Security said it raised $85 million in a Series D funding round that valued the company at $1.1 billion.

About Mindgard

Mindgard secures AI models, agents, and applications against exploitable threats. Mindgard combines offensive security expertise, AI red teaming, attacker intelligence, and automated protection to help organizations discover, assess, and mitigate risk across AI models, agents, and applications. Mindgard was created from more than a decade of AI security research at Lancaster University. Mindgard was founded on pioneering research by Dr. Peter Garraghan at Lancaster University, which showed traditional AppSec could not address AI-specific risks. Mindgard's research has produced 150+ publicly disclosed AI vulnerabilities.[1][5]

The Mindgard AI security platform finds, validates, and fixes high-impact AI vulnerabilities. Mindgard operates as an autonomous red teamer, continuously mapping, planning, and executing complex, agentic attack workflows. Mindgard profiles AI systems the way attackers do, mapping models, agents, tools, and behaviors before attack execution. Mindgard automates recon and intelligence gathering on AI systems before adversarial testing to discover instructions, tools, and behaviors attackers can exploit. Mindgard identifies AI models, agents, MCP/A2A servers, connected tools, and shadow AI within products. Mindgard tests AI applications, agents and LLMs, including image, audio and multi-modal models. Mindgard uses reconnaissance and agentic attacks to identify how an attacker could manipulate an agent, access sensitive information, misuse tools, bypass controls, or chain weaknesses together.[1][4][13]

Mindgard validates which weaknesses are exploitable, explains their potential impact, and provides evidence and guidance to help teams close them. AI guardrails and firewalls apply policies to prompts, responses, or actions at runtime, and Mindgard tests whether those controls actually work. Mindgard assesses agents, tools, permissions, APIs, data, and infrastructure beyond the prompt layer. Mindgard evaluates and strengthens AI guardrails and WAF solutions against vulnerabilities.[1][13]

Mindgard deploys through CI/CD, Burp Suite, or a single click. Mindgard integrates into existing workflows with CI/CD automation and a Burp Suite extension. Mindgard uses APIs and integrations to secure models, agents, and AI applications across development and production environments. Mindgard routes findings through APIs, CI/CD, and enterprise workflow integrations into existing security tooling, ticketing systems, and engineering workflows. Mindgard integrates report viewing into existing systems and SIEM. Mindgard supports SAML/SSO, SCIM provisioning, and RBAC to align security testing with organizational compliance standards.[1][4][13][14][15]

Mindgard generates evidence, remediation guidance, and audit-ready reports mapped to OWASP, MITRE, NIST, and AIUC-1. Mindgard discovers and inventories AI applications, models, agents, and shadow AI across an entire environment. Mindgard prioritizes findings by severity, exposure, affected target, business context, and urgency of remediation. Mindgard gives security, engineering, GRC, and audit teams reporting they can use to demonstrate that AI risks and controls are being continuously evaluated. Security teams use Mindgard to discover and remediate high impact risk.[4][15]

Mindgard researchers attack AI systems the way a motivated adversary would, using prompt injection, agent hijacking, tool abuse, data extraction and guardrail bypass, chained into attack paths. Mindgard red teams the whole AI system, not just the model. A single LLM application typically takes two to three weeks from kickoff to report in a Mindgard AI pentest. Mindgard sells a dedicated Technical Account Manager as an annual subscription. Mindgard's AI Security Expert subscription gives a team direct access to a specialist. Mindgard training includes instructor-led workshops where teams build agents, test attacks, configure guardrails, and harden defenses.[6][7][8][9][10][13]

A US insurance brokerage used Mindgard to secure nine production AI models. Mindgard secured Fortune 500 design partners. Mindgard expanded its leadership with CEO James Brear, Head of Research Aaron Portnoy, and Offensive Security Lead Rich Smith. Mindgard lists SOC 2 Type 2. Mindgard says 86% of its staff are on the R&D team and 38% hold PhDs.[1][5][6][7][8][9][10][13][14]

Mindgard on the record

Sources

Mindgard full record

  1. [1]Mindgard - AI Red Teaming & AI Security SolutionsMindgard · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]About Mindgard: Offensive AI Security CompanyMindgard · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Mindgard raises 30 million to protect ai systemsSecurityWeek · securityweek.com · published August 12, 2026 · Tier B
  4. [4]AI Security Software: Advanced AI Testing Tools - MindgardMindgard · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]AI Security Services: Secure Agentic AI Systems - MindgardMindgard · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]AI Red Teaming Services for LLMs and Agents - MindgardMindgard · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]AI Penetration TestingMindgard · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]AI Security Advisory Services for Enterprise AI - MindgardMindgard · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]AI Security Consulting Services for Enterprise AI - MindgardMindgard · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]AI Security TrainingMindgard · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Mindgard Raises $30M Series AMindgard · published August 13, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Mindgard Unveils First Autonomous AI Security Platform To Identify And Fix Exploitable VulnerabilitiesBusiness Wire · published March 17, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Offensive Security Tool for AI Systems - MindgardMindgard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Mindgard vs Prompt SecurityMindgard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]AI Governance & ComplianceMindgard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

Obsidian Security full record

  1. [1]obsidiansecurity.comObsidian Security · obsidiansecurity.com · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Unlocking ai potential securelyObsidian Security · obsidiansecurity.com · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Secure AI. Fearless Innovation. | ObsidianObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]The Obsidian Security PlatformObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Obsidian Security – Who We AreObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]The Data Behind Better SecurityObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Network EffectsObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Automate Third-Party Application ComplianceObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Runtime Policy Decision Engine for AI Agents | Obsidian SecurityObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]MCP Security Proxy for AI Agents | Obsidian SecurityObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]MCP Security: Audit and Control Every MCP ServerObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Continuous Third-Party App Governance | Obsidian SecurityObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Third-Party Application Security | Obsidian SecurityObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Flexible SaaS Security Pricing | ObsidianObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Obsidian Security raises funding at $1.1 billion valuation on AI security demand | ReutersReuters · published August 4, 2026 · Tier B

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