For makers and artists building autonomous digital workers, the landscape is shifting from simple API keys to complex identity management. As AI agents move from experimental tools to full-fledged employees, the ability to authenticate, govern, and revoke their access at scale becomes the critical bottleneck. NewCore has emerged to solve this, securing $66 million to treat software workers as first-class citizens with their own distinct identities.
NewCore secures M to manage digital workforces
The cybersecurity firm NewCore stepped out of stealth on Monday with a seed round led by Cyberstarts. Index Ventures and Evolution Equity Partners also participated, valuing the company at $300 million post-investment. The funding aims to address the challenge of authenticating and governing AI agents as they replace or augment human labour.
Major corporations are increasingly viewing these agents as workplace participants rather than mere utilities. Goldman Sachs tested an AI coding agent named Devin as a new employee last year. Meanwhile, McKinsey noted earlier this year that 25,000 AI agents are already working alongside its 60,000 human staff. NewCore operates on the premise that managing these digital workers will require the same rigor as managing human employees.
The identity system failure
Zohar Alon, co-founder and chief executive, argues that current identity systems are the weakest link in enterprise security. Previously the founder of cloud-security startup Dome9 (acquired by Check Point), Alon believes existing platforms are ill-suited for an environment where software workers operate alongside humans.
“We know for sure that the scale and the complexity that those things [AI agents] are going to add to 15- or 20-year-old identity platforms are going to break them,” Alon told TechCrunch.
Alon co-founded the company with chief technology officer Amihai Neiderman, a former Unit 8200 research leader and founder of healthcare AI startup Nym Health. Chief revenue officer Erez Yarkoni, previously CIO of T-Mobile USA and Telstra, also leads the effort.
The concept took shape in 2023 when Alon reviewed the technology budget for a client relying on an established identity provider. After seeing the substantial cost, he assumed the customer was satisfied with the product.
“I said, ‘You must be extremely happy with them,'” Alon recalled. “He said, ‘No, I’m not.'”
This exchange highlighted Alon’s view that the identity market has become stagnant, dominated by vendors facing little competitive pressure.
Built for humans, machines, and agents
While established providers like Okta and Microsoft’s Entra are adding agent capabilities, Alon contends they are merely extending platforms originally designed for humans. NewCore, by contrast, was built from the ground up for a mixed workforce of humans, machines, and AI agents.
“The traditional vendors give you an agentic way to deal with identity, but it’s on the side, it’s not integrated,” Alon said. To address security risks, NewCore utilises a “split-key” architecture that divides critical identity credentials between the customer and the platform, eliminating a single point of compromise.
The platform offers an “Agentic Skill” integration package for coding assistants such as Anthropic’s Claude Code, OpenAI’s Codex, and Cursor. This allows these tools to access enterprise systems as managed identities rather than through manually distributed credentials.
Furthermore, employees can use NewCore’s mobile app to grant, review, and revoke access for AI agents. Alon describes this as a human oversight layer, essential as companies deploy more autonomous systems.
Adoption and future predictions
NewCore has expanded to more than 50 employees across the U.S. and Israel. Currently, the platform serves fewer than 10 customers and more than 10 design partners. Alon expects to begin charging clients this summer.
Alon predicts AI agents could outnumber human employees at many technology-focused organisations within a few years. This view mirrors a recent comment from TCS Chairman N. Chandrasekaran, who suggested AI agents could eventually rival the Indian IT services company’s own workforce in size.
Alon argues that identity will likely be the first enterprise system strained by large-scale agent deployment. Companies will inevitably need new methods to monitor, authorise, and revoke software workers operating across their networks.
“It’s inevitable,” Alon said of AI agents becoming a significant part of the workforce. “The question is whether we’re going to build the guardrails in time.”
Key takeaways
- NewCore has secured $66 million in funding to build an identity platform specifically designed for the intersection of human and AI employees.
- Current identity vendors like Okta and Microsoft are retrofitting older systems, whereas NewCore uses native “split-key” architecture to prevent single points of compromise.
- Major enterprises like Goldman Sachs and McKinsey are already treating AI agents as employees, creating an urgent need for scalable governance tools.
- The company expects to launch commercial billing this summer as it prepares to manage the growing volume of autonomous digital workers.
