Vanta to Acquire Pillar Security, the AI Security Startup That Planned a Miami Hub
Less than a year after its co-founder moved to Miami to build a hub, Pillar Security is being acquired by Vanta. The reported price is about $150 million, on just over $9 million raised.
MIAMI — In January, Pillar Security co-founder Dor Sarig told Refresh Miami he wanted to build something lasting in South Florida. “We want to build a real hub here,” he said. “Miami is booming, and the AI talent is strong.”
Ten months later, the AI security startup has a buyer. San Francisco-based security and compliance company Vanta has signed an agreement to acquire Pillar, Refresh Miami reported on Nov. 10. Israeli tech publication Calcalist put the price at about $150 million in cash and stock. Neither company disclosed terms in its announcement.
For a company founded in late 2023 that had raised just over $9 million, that is a strong outcome, and another data point for founders weighing whether Miami is a good place to build in AI.
What Pillar does
Pillar focuses on a problem that keeps getting bigger as companies hand more work to AI. Traditional cybersecurity tools were built for software that follows fixed instructions. AI agents can make decisions, use tools and take actions on their own.
“AI is software, but it’s a new kind of software,” Sarig told Refresh Miami. “The way we build it and the way we interact with it is completely new. So everything we know about securing software also needs to change.”
Pillar’s platform finds AI systems across an organization, tests them for vulnerabilities and monitors how they behave in real time. Sarig described work with a Fortune 300 company where Pillar scanned more than 30,000 code repositories. It found 8,000 AI models and 400 AI systems that the company’s security team didn’t know existed.
The startup’s researchers have also reported serious flaws in widely used AI tools, according to Refresh Miami. Those include a vulnerability in the automation platform n8n that could have exposed hundreds of thousands of enterprise AI systems to takeover, and another in Google’s Gemini CLI.
Pillar also built SAIL, an AI security framework that maps 91 risks across seven stages of the AI lifecycle. The company says it has passed 50,000 downloads.
Why Vanta wants it
Vanta is best known for helping companies automate security compliance, the audits and certifications that customers and regulators ask for. It serves more than 20,000 customers and passed $300 million in annual recurring revenue earlier this year, according to Refresh Miami. Buying Pillar moves Vanta beyond compliance paperwork and into actively securing AI.
“Customers, regulators and auditors want proof that a company’s AI does what it says on the tin,” Vanta CEO Christina Cacioppo said in the acquisition announcement, as reported by Calcalist. “A policy document doesn’t get you there. Pillar Security lets companies test their agents and stop them when they go out of bounds, and Vanta turns all of that into evidence.”
Vanta plans to start integrating Pillar’s technology in January 2027, beginning with tools that identify AI systems across organizations and detect suspicious activity. Sarig and co-founder Ziv Karliner are expected to stay on and lead AI security development.
What it means for Miami
The deal is a reminder that Miami’s tech scene grows through relocations as much as homegrown startups. Sarig moved his family from Israel to Miami this year. Calcalist reported that Pillar’s team of more than 20 will become Vanta’s Israeli research and development center, so the deal doesn’t guarantee a large Miami office. Still, an exit like this puts money and experience in the hands of founders who chose South Florida.
It also fits a run of AI and security activity in the region. Recent examples covered by Entrepreneurs Of Miami include Aventura-based Comp AI’s $34 million Series A for compliance automation and doxx.net’s $38 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz. A growing cluster of security and compliance companies makes it easier for the next founder to find talent, customers and investors locally.
Lessons for founders
A few takeaways for Miami entrepreneurs building in AI or selling to companies that use it:
- Security is becoming a buying requirement. As Cacioppo put it, customers and auditors want proof, not policy documents. Startups selling AI products should expect harder questions about how their agents are tested and monitored.
- Visibility comes first. Pillar’s Fortune 300 example, with thousands of unknown AI models, shows that many companies can’t secure what they can’t see. Discovery tools are often the entry point.
- Research builds reputation. Publishing vulnerability findings and a free framework helped a small team get attention well beyond its size.
- Capital efficiency still wins. A reported $150 million outcome on about $9 million raised shows that a focused team in a hot category can produce a strong return without huge funding rounds.
What’s next
Watch for details on Vanta’s integration plans in January 2027 and whether Pillar’s founders keep a presence in South Florida after the deal closes. Entrepreneurs Of Miami will update this story as more information becomes available.