The workplace is getting a digital makeover. Cybersecurity startup NewCore just emerged from stealth with a $66 million funding round, and it's tackling a problem most companies haven't realized yet: how to give AI agents actual employee status.
Goldman Sachs already tested AI coding agent Devin as a full employee. McKinsey is running 25,000 AI agents alongside 60,000 human staff. NewCore co-founder Zohar Alon sees the shift as exposing a fundamental flaw in legacy systems.
"The scale and complexity that AI agents will add to 15- or 20-year-old identity platforms are going to break them," Alon told TechCrunch. Alon has pedigree — he previously founded cloud-security startup Dome9 before Check Point acquired it.
The team assembled for this includes CTO Amihai Neiderman, a former Unit 8200 research leader and founder of healthcare AI startup Nym Health, and Chief Commercial Officer Erez Yarkoni, who served as CIO of both T-Mobile USA and Telstra.
The seed round was led by Cyberstarts, with Index Ventures and Evolution Equity Partners participating. NewCore landed a $300 million valuation.
The core argument: AI agents need their own permissions, lifecycle controls, and revocation mechanisms. They should be treated like real employees, not service accounts. Established players like Okta and Microsoft's Entra are adding AI agent features, but Alon contends they are grafting capabilities onto platforms designed for humans.
Alon's insight came during a conversation with an executive overseeing a major company's tech budget. When asked if they were happy with their established identity provider, they said no. That exchange sparked the realization: identity management is expensive, complex, and overdue for change.
The enterprise security landscape is shifting. AI agents are now part of the workforce.
