RiskIQ founders launch Ent Security with $100M to rethink endpoint defense
Intent-aware endpoint security startup Ent Security launched today with $100 million in funding to build what it calls a new layer of workspace security that reads the intent behind what users and artificial intelligence agents do before risky actions are completed.
Founded by Elias Manousos and Brandon Dixon and incorporated as Athena Formation Inc., the company is positioning itself between the traditional endpoint detection and response or EDR market and the broader push to govern how employees and AI agents use enterprise systems. Manousos and Dixon previously founded RiskIQ Inc., which Microsoft Corp. acquired in 2021 and both went on to help build Microsoft Security Copilot.
Ent argues that endpoint security is expanding into workspace security and that existing tools are built for the wrong moment. EDR and extended detection and response or XDR products are good at catching malicious code and process behavior, but they typically act after an action is complete. Much of today’s risk looks like normal work, the company says, particularly as AI agents take on tasks across applications, data and local runtimes.
