Mindgard

Mindgard (operating under mindgard.ai) is an enterprise cybersecurity platform purpose-built for automated AI red teaming, discovery, threat assessment, and real-time runtime defense. Spun out in 2022 following more than a decade of specialized AI security and behavioral research led by Dr. Peter Garraghan at Lancaster University, the firm addresses a fundamental shift in the modern corporate attack surface—specifically that traditional application security (AppSec) frameworks are functionally blind to AI-native risks. Rather than treating security as an isolated model-scanning task, Mindgard assesses AI deployments as interconnected systems composed of models, prompts, custom instructions, operational agents, external data connectors, and application APIs. Its core technology engine functions as an autonomous, continuous red teamer that deploys proprietary, attacker-style reconnaissance to map vulnerabilities across both open-source LLMs and managed AI infrastructure. The platform profiles AI agent behaviors using advanced psychometric profiling and guardrail-busting mechanics to detect critical enterprise vulnerabilities—such as adversarial prompt injection, data poisoning, exfiltration loops, and unauthorized tool execution. The company's dedicated threat intelligence and offensive security lab has publicly identified and responsibly disclosed over 100 severe AI system vulnerabilities across dominant major-tech platforms including OpenAI's ChatGPT and xAI's Grok. Backed by approximately $11.9 million in venture capital from prominent tier-1 institutional cybersecurity investors such as IQ Capital, Lakestar, and .406 Ventures, Mindgard integrates cleanly into existing developer CI/CD pipelines and enterprise SecOps workflows to safeguard mission-critical AI operations. Headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with a commercial presence in Boston, Massachusetts, Mindgard is guided by enterprise tech veteran James Brear as Chief Executive Officer.