Cinder raises $41 million in Series B funding to defend companies from AI abuse

New York, NY - Cinder, mission-critical infrastructure protecting the world's most innovative companies from digital abuse and manipulation, today announced its series B funding round of $41 million, led by Radical Ventures, with participation from Accel, Y Combinator, M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund, PSP Growth, and Neuberger’s Outpost Ventures, among others. Cinder also announced the opening of its corporate headquarters in New York City. The company plans to double headcount in the next 12 months.

"Trust and safety has gone from a back-office function to critical infrastructure that directly affects enterprise value and brand integrity. As AI-generated content explodes — and as AI agents increasingly act on companies' behalf — traditional moderation tools simply don't work. Cinder is the only AI-native platform built for this shift, and it's already become mission-critical for the world's most innovative AI companies as they scale safely and responsibly,” said Ryan Shannon, Partner at Radical Ventures.

Top technology platforms, including OpenAI, Spotify, depop, and Black Forest Labs, use Cinder to navigate the most pressing and cutting edge online safety challenges in the world, and defuse threats that could harm their users, brand, and business. Trained on a company's values and policies, Cinder’s AI agents detect, adapt, and respond to digital threats in real time, like fraud, AI prompt abuse, and non-consensual intimate imagery. Cinder's platform then automates enforcement across every guideline a company sets – so AI models behave as intended, content moderation works at scale, and regulatory obligations are met.

“When the world's most innovative AI labs and consumer platforms all rely on the same team to defend their users, that's a category leader. Cinder is becoming as essential to modern platforms as identity or payments, and in the AI era this is arguably the most critical infrastructure layer,” said Sara Ittelson, Partner at Accel.

"Few issues are as important for platforms as managing their trust and safety," said Peter Lenke, Managing Partner at M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund. "As AI accelerates the reach, frequency and efficacy of bad actors, it has never been more important for companies to leverage technology to protect their users. Cinder provides the most innovative companies in the market a unified operating system for their safety operations while preserving each company's unique values, policies, and brand voice. The result is enforcement that actually works at scale, freeing human moderators to focus on the most complex cases and making the internet and their customers’ products safer for everyone."

Cinder's founding team has been on the front lines fighting the internet's worst crimes, including nation-state espionage, terrorist coordination, and child sexual abuse rings. Cinder CEO Glen Wise is a former CIA cyber analyst and security engineer on Facebook's Threat Discovery team. He founded Cinder to make sure the people defending the internet had the same firepower as the people attacking it.

“The internet has always been abused by bad actors, and AI is making this exponentially worse,” Wise said. “Unchecked abuse on the internet destroys trust, and without trust, you don't have a business. The sheer volume and diversity of threats have made it nearly impossible for any team to keep up, no matter how talented or well-resourced they are. Cinder is the bouncer of the internet. We’re here to help you throw the bad guys out.”

AI has fundamentally changed the digital threat landscape. Bad actors now have access to more powerful tools than the platforms they're targeting, creating abuse, fraud, and manipulation at unprecedented scale and speed. Defending the internet isn't a support function but is one of the most important responsibilities in technology today. Cinder treats it that way.

ABOUT CINDER: Founded in 2022, Cinder is the mission-critical infrastructure protecting the world's most innovative platforms from digital abuse, fraud, and manipulation. Cinder's tools detect threats in real time, and deploy agents to automate content review and policy enforcement. Trusted by OpenAI, Spotify, depop, and Black Forest Labs, Cinder gives trust and safety teams the firepower to stay ahead of the overwhelming volume and velocity of threats in the AI era.