Ciphero Builds an AI Verification Layer that Makes AI Truthful and Secure

NEW YORK, N.Y., Dec. 18, 2025 – Saoud Khalifah, the founder of Fakespot that was acquired by Mozilla in 2023, announced today the launch of his new company, Ciphero. Founded with a mission to address the security gap created by the rapid adoption of AI in enterprise environments and the lack of verification to ensure secure AI use, Ciphero is pioneering the first enterprise-grade system that dynamically verifies all AI interactions, whether human or agentic, to safeguard against AI-related data loss and attacks.

Rob Gross, Saoud's co-founder from Fakespot, joins Ciphero as a co-founder and COO along with Dr. Sen Tian as a co-founder and CAIO. Early strategic backers include Sovereign's Capital and Chingona Ventures, who co-led Ciphero's oversubscribed pre-seed round of $2.5 million.

"AI is one of the major breakthroughs in technology that we've experienced since the introduction of the Internet and personal computing. However, along with the gains in productivity from AI, it also allows malicious actors to become better attackers, increasing the attack surface area for enterprises. We're incredibly excited to be building an AI-native Verification Layer that allows companies to defend, secure and verify AI across the workplace, bringing confidence in adopting AI for the positives it brings."

– Saoud Khalifah, Co-founder and CEO of Ciphero

The First AI Verification Layer

Ciphero is the first AI Verification Layer that captures, verifies, and governs all enterprise AI interactions including Shadow AI and agentic deployments to encourage safe and ethical AI usage for all organizations. Enterprises can use Ciphero to safely integrate AI into the workplace while preventing sensitive data leaks and maintaining compliance standards such as SOC 2. The Ciphero team is working with select design partners to secure their AI enterprise-wide, encourage authorized AI usage, and identify new areas for AI investment.

"As enterprise AI usage increases, the list of potential risk factors have grown in direct correlation. This will only intensify as the pace of AI product deployments accelerates. Ciphero allows enterprises to quickly understand what AI platforms their employees are using, how they are using them, and directs employees to approved AI channels. We have taken a novel approach by deploying AI that judges AI in order to stop data loss and encourage secure AI usage."

– Rob Gross, Co-founder and COO of Ciphero

The Growing Enterprise AI Security Gap

GenAI and agentic AI are becoming increasingly commonplace across organizations. Currently, 62% of organizations leverage agentic AI internally, with projections indicating that 100% of enterprise IT operations will be heavily influenced by AI within the next five years.

Despite growing adoption and usage, enterprise AI governance today is both limited and static – unable to effectively govern rapidly-evolving tools like GenAI and agentic AI. Today, despite 78% of AI users bringing their own tools to the workplace, 97% of people report their organization lacked the proper AI access controls and 63% of these firms are entirely devoid of an internal AI governance framework.

This has led to more than 80% of organizations currently showing signs of Shadow AI activity, which according to IBM, has been the culprit behind one in every six data breaches this year. Most recently, OpenAI has warned that new OpenAI models likely pose a high cybersecurity risk, increasing the urgency for enterprises to secure their environments.

Ciphero aims to empower organizations with the requisite, dynamic AI Verification Layer to secure all AI usage across workspaces – ultimately accelerating the adoption of AI.

Investor Perspectives

"Chingona Ventures is proud to back Ciphero as they build the critical verification and security layer enterprises need for responsible AI adoption. As AI becomes deeply embedded in everyday workflows, companies are struggling with data leakage, compliance risks, and a lack of visibility into how employees use AI tools. Ciphero solves this by giving organizations real-time observability, policy enforcement, and a powerful marketplace of AI verifiers that keep sensitive data safe without slowing innovation. We invested because we believe Saoud, Rob, and Sen are a rare repeat founding team with deep technical expertise, proven enterprise credibility, and a clear vision for how AI will shape the future of work. Ciphero aligns squarely with our thesis of enabling organizations to harness AI securely and responsibly, and we're thrilled to support them as they set a new standard for AI trust and safety in the workplace."

– Samara Hernandez, Founding Partner at Chingona Ventures

"Ciphero's AI verification platform allows organizations to address a growing problem in the enterprise: managing AI interactions for security and compliance against company policies to keep sensitive information secure. We're thrilled to back serial founders Saoud and Rob as they launch from stealth and deliver on Ciphero's promise to ensure that the AI powered future is trustworthy and reliable."

– Phil Jung, Partner at Sovereign's Capital

To learn more about Ciphero and to request early access to the platform, reach out to us at: contact@cipheroai.org.

About Ciphero

Ciphero is an AI Verification Layer that allows companies to verify and secure AI interactions and agentic workflows throughout the enterprise. Ciphero safely enables AI deployments capturing and evaluating every AI interaction to prevent AI data loss, enforce AI policies, and encourage employee usage of authorized AI channels.