Keycard builds identity and access management (IAM) designed specifically for the era of autonomous AI agents. As enterprises deploy agents that read data and take actions across internal systems, traditional human-centric auth models break down: agents need credentials, but static, long-lived secrets are dangerous when handed to software that can act at scale.
Keycard's platform provides dynamic, contextual authorization that verifies who an agent is, whom it acts on behalf of, and what actions it is permitted to perform. It replaces long-term credentials with federatable, revocable 'short-term identity binding tokens,' supports delegation chains across multiple agents, enforces task-level policy, and produces full audit logs for traceability.
The founding team brings deep identity and security pedigree, including Jared Hanson, creator of Passport.js and former chief architect at Auth0. That background is reflected in an investor and advisor roster spanning leaders from Okta, Auth0, Datadog, Groq, and Chainguard.
Keycard launched from stealth in October 2025 with $38M in combined funding: an $8M seed co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and boldstart ventures, and a $30M Series A led by Acrew Capital, with participation from Mantis VC, Tapestry Ventures, Essence Ventures, and others.
By treating agent identity as first-class infrastructure rather than an afterthought, Keycard positions itself as foundational plumbing for enterprises that want to adopt agentic AI without exposing sensitive systems to over-privileged or unauditable automation.