Itamar Golan, the co-founder and CEO of Prompt Security, recently sat down with VentureBeat to discuss the challenges organizations face when it comes to GenAI security. Golan shared insights on shadow AI sprawl, the strategic decisions that led to Prompt Security’s success, and a real-world incident that highlighted the importance of protecting AI applications.
Golan’s journey to founding Prompt Security began with his academic work on transformer architectures, long before they became essential to today’s large language models. His experience building security features powered by generative AI using GPT-2 and GPT-3 made him realize the new attack surface that LLM-driven applications were creating. This led him to establish Prompt Security in 2023, raise $23 million in funding, grow a team of 50 people, and ultimately achieve a successful acquisition by SentinelOne in 2025.
During the conversation, Golan highlighted the growing issue of shadow AI in enterprises, with VentureBeat analysis showing that breaches related to shadow AI now cost companies an average of $4.63 million. Despite the risks, 97% of breached organizations lack basic AI access controls. Golan emphasized the importance of addressing these security challenges as the use of AI in enterprises continues to grow rapidly.
Prompt Security’s platform addressed a wide range of GenAI security challenges, including data leakage, model governance, compliance, and red teaming. Golan explained that the platform’s capabilities, such as shadow AI discovery and real-time sensitive data sanitization, resonated well with customers and drove faster adoption of AI in a secure manner.
Golan attributed Prompt Security’s success to strategic decisions he made early on, such as building a new category rather than focusing on features, prioritizing enterprise complexity, and deepening relationships with a smaller number of serious customers. These choices positioned Prompt Security as a market leader in GenAI security.
As Prompt Security was acquired by SentinelOne, Golan’s focus now is on extending AI security across the entire platform and integrating it with endpoint, identity, and cloud workload security. The acquisition will enable Prompt Security’s capabilities to reach a broader audience and enhance AI security across various applications.
In conclusion, the GenAI security landscape is evolving rapidly, with M&A activity increasing for startups that have demonstrated the ability to scale enterprise-level security solutions. Prompt Security’s integration into SentinelOne’s Singularity Platform will provide comprehensive AI security coverage across various LLM providers and ensure a secure AI adoption strategy from the beginning.
