Backslash Security

Israeli startup Backslash Security aims to create a safe environment for organizations to accelerate their adoption of agentic AI. The company’s solution provides visibility, control, and real-time protection on laptops and workstation used by employees and software developers, accelerating AI adoption while reducing risk and meeting compliance requirements.

Backslash was founded in 2022 by Shahar Man (CEO) and Yossi Pik (CTO) as co-founders. Shahar has extensive experience in cloud security — he was the first VP of R&D at unicorn Aqua Security. Before that, he worked for many years as a development group manager at SAP. Yossi met Shahar at SAP, where he managed his own development group. After leaving SAP, Yossi founded the agritech startup Farmigo, which he later sold to GrubMarket. Together, they decided to found a new startup in the cybersecurity space.

Securing the new Agentic AI Endpoint

The use of AI is now commonplace, but over the past couple of years the use of AI agents in particular has been skyrocketing. Agents can simplify tedious tasks, be used for research, coding, content creation, replace old applications with new home-grown ones, and automate processes. This trend was initially led by software developers, who were better equipped to take advantage of AI in their work to accelerate coding, testing and deployment of software. But with the introduction of co-work agents and a multitude of connectors, skills and plug-ins, now every user from marketing to finance can become a heavy user of agentic AI.

Nowhere has this been more visible than on enterprise endpoints – those laptops and workstations, PCs and Macs we all use every day. What used to be a relatively simple environment of an operating system, a few office applications and a browser, is now significantly expanded to include autonomous agents surrounded by additional components such as plugins, connectors, skills, MCP servers and local AI models – creating a significant new attack surface that traditional endpoint security solutions were not built to address.

The risk doesn’t just come from AI-based attack vectors such as prompt injections and deliberate manipulation of AI agents, it also exists due to overly broad access that agents are given to other applications and data, and due to the sometimes unexpected behaviors that agents exhibit as they try to achieve the goals set for them. And since every endpoint might be running more than one agent, surrounded by dozens of other components – this can quickly become difficult to manage at scale.

This is where Backslash comes in, enabling organizations to quickly discover where such risk exists, provide guardrails and policies to reduce the attack surface and ensure that security best practices are followed, and also understand – in real time – when an agent has drifted off course from its original intent. The company’s uniqueness lies in its focus — creating a deep understanding on AI context on endpoints, and covering the gaps and blind spots that traditional endpoint protection and EDR tools can’t cover. All of this while ensuring that users can continue to use their favorite AI tools safely and benefit from the efficiencies and agility they bring.

A Fast Growing Company

Currently, Backslash is in its Series A stage and employs 30 people. Its headquarters are located in the Sarona area of Tel Aviv. The company is growing rapidly with an expanding customer base that includes enterprise clients in various sectors — such as SaaS, retail, fintech, healthcare. Among its clients are Entrata, Happy Returns (a UPS subsidiary), and PandaDoc.

Due to its strong growth momentum, the company is constantly looking to hire for positions across engineering, research, product management, marketing, and sales.