Vanta agrees to buy AI security startup Pillar for about $150 million

Vanta, the company known for automating security compliance, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Israeli AI security startup Pillar Security. Calcalist's CTech reported on November 9 that the deal is valued at about $150 million, in a mix of cash and shares.

Pillar is small. It was founded in 2023, has raised $9 million, and employs more than 20 people, all of whom are expected to join a new Vanta research and development center in Israel. Founders Ziv Karliner and Dor Sarig will stay and lead Vanta's AI security business. Calcalist says Pillar's research team found bypasses in AI coding tools including Cursor, Codex and Gemini CLI, which the vendors patched.

The buyer is much larger. Vanta says it serves more than 20,000 customers, up from 16,000 in the first quarter of 2026, and that it passed $300 million in annual recurring revenue in April 2026, up 63 percent year over year. Those figures come from the company. This would be Vanta's third acquisition, after Trustpage in 2023 and Riskey in 2025.

The logic is about proof. "Customers, regulators and auditors want proof that a company's AI does what it says on the tin," said Vanta CEO Christina Cacioppo. CTech reports that Vanta introduced an AI governance product in July 2026. Vanta plans an AI inventory tool and runtime monitoring for January 2027. Buying Pillar gives it a research team that already tests how AI systems fail.

For makers building AI agents, the practical focus is the combination of governance evidence and technical controls. The planned integration connects testing and runtime monitoring with the requirements companies use to manage AI risk.