Runlayer Raises $11M to Secure MCP

Runlayer, a new U.S.-based startup focused on securing the Model Context Protocol (MCP), has raised $11 million in seed funding from Keith Rabois and Felicis from Khosla Ventures. 

What Runlayer Does. It provides a full-stack security layer for MCP, combining gateway protection, threat detection, observability, enterprise developer tools, and fine-grained permission controls tied to identity systems like Okta and Entra.

Early Traction. In just four months post-product launch, Runlayer claims to have signed eight unicorn or public companies including Gusto, dbt Labs, Instacart, and Opendoor.

MCP Risk to Fix. The MCP protocol, widely supported by OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, AWS, and others, lacks strong security out of the box, leading to vulnerabilities like prompt injections and data exfiltration in real-world MCP deployments.

Team & Expertise. The company is led by Andrew Berman (formerly of Nanit and Vowel), and its advisory board includes David Soria Parra, the lead creator of MCP. 

If Runlayer can deliver on its vision, it could become the essential guardrail for enterprises adopting AI agents, making MCP agent deployments much safer for production.