CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Mindgard vs Pluto Security

Mindgard secures AI models, agents, and applications against exploitable threats. Pluto Security sells security for what people build with AI. 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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  • Mindgard
  • Pluto Security
Mindgard vs Pluto Security: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
MindgardMindgard secures AI models, agents, and applications against exploitable threats.mindgard.aiPluto SecurityPluto Security sells security for what people build with AI.pluto.security
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.
  • Explorer[1]Discovers and maps the AI tools, agents and extensions in use across an organization's endpoints, cloud and SaaS.
  • Risk radar[1]Evaluates discovered AI tools and agents against a risk database to triage them.
  • Space Shield[1]Applies and enforces policies that control what AI tools and agents are permitted to do based on context.
  • Marketspace[1]Offers a curated catalog of vetted AI add-ons that employees can adopt.
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
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]
  • October 13, 2026Pluto Security announced its emergence from stealth with $42 million in total funding and said it has over 40 enterprise customers.[7]
  • June 17, 2026Pluto Security launched Plutonium, a free, vendor-neutral security hub covering the AI assistant ecosystem.[6]
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, Pluto Security sells mainly to security teams and CISOs who want to let employees use AI tools without blocking them. It names a Fortune 500 health insurance company among the kinds of customers quoted. Its about page describes protecting AI builders, developer tools, and business workspaces.
Last verified
September 27, 2026October 16, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Mindgard and Pluto 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; Pluto Security's is Workforce AI usage security.
  • Mindgard is also filed under AI firewalls and guardrails. Pluto Security is also filed under Software supply chain security.
  • Mindgard lists AI Red Teaming and AI Security Expert. Pluto Security lists Explorer, Risk radar, Space Shield and Marketspace.
  • 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.

Questions about Mindgard and Pluto Security

What do Mindgard and Pluto Security sell?
Mindgard sells AI Red Teaming and AI Security Expert. Pluto Security sells Explorer, Risk radar, Space Shield and Marketspace.
Are Mindgard and Pluto Security in the same category?
They share AI model and agent security. Mindgard's primary category is AI model and agent security and Pluto Security's is Workforce AI usage security.
Where are Mindgard and Pluto Security headquartered?
Mindgard is headquartered in Boston, United States.
When were Mindgard and Pluto Security founded?
Mindgard was founded in 2022.
Who owns Mindgard and Pluto Security?
Mindgard is privately held. Pluto Security is privately held.
Who are Mindgard and Pluto Security sold to?
Mindgard addresses organizations that secure the AI systems they build, buy and use. From its own pages, Pluto Security sells mainly to security teams and CISOs who want to let employees use AI tools without blocking them.
What have Mindgard and Pluto Security announced recently?
August 13, 2026: Mindgard announced a $30M Series A funding round. October 13, 2026: Pluto Security announced its emergence from stealth with $42 million in total funding and said it has over 40 enterprise customers.

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

Pluto Security full record

  1. [1]pluto.securityPluto Security · pluto.security · undated page, accessed October 16, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]About Us - Pluto SecurityPluto Security · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Enabling CISOs to say YES - Pluto SecurityPluto Security · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]What Is AI Security Posture Management & What Does It Do? - Pluto SecurityPluto Security · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Webinar - Still saying no to AI tools because of security risks? - Pluto SecurityPluto Security · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Introducing PlutoniumPluto Security · published June 17, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Pluto Security Emerges From Stealth With $42M in Funding to Help Enterprises Secure AI AdoptionFinanceWire (Markets Insider) · published October 13, 2026 · Tier B

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