Keycard, an identity and access platform designed for AI agents, has emerged from stealth with $38m in combined seed and Series A funding.
The rounds were led by Andreessen Horowitz, boldstart ventures, and Acrew Capital, with participation from several high-profile angel investors including Ian Andrews of Groq, Ryan Carlson of Chainguard, Emilio Escobar of Datadog, Karl McGuinness formerly of Okta, and Matias Woloski, co-founder and former CTO of Auth0.
Founded by Ian Livingstone, Matthew Creager and Jared Hanson, Keycard develops technology that allows organisations to securely integrate AI agents with their existing identity systems. The company’s platform identifies AI agents, assigns permissions based on specific tasks, enforces policies dynamically, and tracks all activity in real time to ensure AI agents operate safely within their authorised boundaries.
Keycard’s technology is designed to address a growing challenge in the AI era: controlling the identities and permissions of rapidly proliferating, autonomous AI agents. Traditional identity systems were created for static, human-driven workflows, but Keycard’s solution is built for the dynamic and machine-driven environment of modern AI applications. The platform enables developers to cryptographically verify agents, replace static credentials with identity-bound tokens, and enforce contextual access controls at runtime.
With the new funding, Keycard plans to accelerate development of its identity and access management platform, expand its research and development team, and advance its efforts to contribute to emerging industry standards, including Model Context Protocol (MCP) and OAuth extensions for AI agents.
Keycard co-founder and CEO Ian Livingstone said, “AI agents represent a once-in-a-generation shift, greater than the SaaS and cloud wave combined. But without trusted access controls, they can’t leave the lab. Keycard provides the guardrails that allow agents to act safely on behalf of people and businesses, unlocking the true potential of the agent economy.”
Andreessen Horowitz partner Zane Lackey said: “This is the Auth0 moment for agent access. The agent ecosystem needs foundational authorization infrastructure. This team has the rare combination of infrastructure expertise and standards leadership required to build it.”
Boldstart ventures founder and general partner Ed Sim said: “Winning in agentic security takes a rare mix: build for developers and nail security from day one. Ian, Matthew and Jared did it before at Snyk and Auth0 and they’re doing it again with Keycard. We’re thrilled to back Ian and Matthew a second time (their first company was acquired by Snyk) alongside Jared. This is the team to define the identity and trust category for the agent era.”
Acrew Capital founding partner Asad Khaliq said: “Trusted agents define the next chapter of computing. Developers will lead the way and need durable identity and access foundations. Keycard extends trust and control to the agent layer.”
This latest $38m raise includes an $8m seed round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and boldstart ventures, followed by a $30m Series A led by Acrew Capital.
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