Symbiotic Security raises $10m to make AI-generated code safe
Symbiotic Security raised $10 million in seed funding to launch Symbiotic Code, an AI agent that embeds security enforcement directly into code generation workflows to prevent vulnerabilities in AI-assisted software development. The US- and France-based startup announced the round on January 20, addressing growing concerns that development teams generate code faster than they can reliably validate it, creating security bottlenecks that either slow releases or get skipped under deadline pressure.
Founded by CEO Jérôme Robert and CTO Edouard Viot, Symbiotic Security previously raised $3 million in 2024 from investors including Lerer Hippeau, Axeleo Capital, and Factorial Capital. The company launched its initial product offering real-time security detection, remediation, and just-in-time training integrated into developer integrated development environments. Research validates the urgency of the problem the startup addresses, with academic studies revealing significant vulnerability rates in AI-generated code.
A Stanford University study found developers using AI code assistants produce more insecure code while paradoxically having greater confidence in its security. A Wuhan University analysis of 452 GitHub Copilot-generated code snippets revealed security vulnerabilities in 32.8 percent of Python code and 24.5 percent of JavaScript snippets. These findings highlight escalating risks as AI coding tools proliferate across software development teams without additional security validation.
Symbiotic Code represents the company's next-generation product, functioning as an AI agent rather than a traditional code scanner. The platform works with over 15 AI models including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot, intercepting code generation to enforce security policies, verify outputs, auto-remediate issues, and revalidate correctness before returning code to developers. This model-agnostic approach allows organizations to maintain their preferred AI coding tools while adding comprehensive security enforcement.
The agent embeds security guardrails at multiple stages of the development workflow. Pre-code guardrails establish security requirements before generation begins. In-IDE agentic protection provides real-time security coaching as developers write code, surfacing issues instantly before they reach continuous integration pipelines. Pull request and CI/CD security functions as a safety net, flagging vulnerabilities as soon as they appear in code reviews. Just-in-time developer guidance delivers context-aware education explaining why specific code patterns create vulnerabilities.
Robert explained in company statements that up to 32 percent of code produced by AI-generated development contains known security vulnerabilities, expanding attack surfaces and undoing the productivity gains AI tools promise. Symbiotic Security's approach shifts security left in the software development lifecycle, preventing vulnerabilities from entering codebases rather than discovering them months or years after deployment when remediation becomes exponentially more expensive and disruptive.
The platform trains its AI models on proprietary security-specific verified datasets rather than general code samples collected from across the web, improving accuracy and speed compared to generalpurpose large language models. When security issues are detected, the system automatically suggests secure replacement code snippets that developers can immediately apply, modify, or reject, similar to spell-check functionality. An integrated AI chatbot enables developers to understand vulnerabilities, explore alternative secure coding techniques, and generate optimized solutions tailored to specific contexts.
Early customers demonstrate measurable impact. Mercury's head of information security Branden Wagner stated the platform strengthens infrastructure with proactive defenses, noting that avoiding vulnerabilities through early remediation and training fundamentally changes how security is applied and perceived by developers. Trustpair CTO Simon Elcham described Symbiotic Security as genuinely understanding developers while making them more productive rather than creating friction.
The broader application security market is experiencing structural shifts as AI code generation becomes ubiquitous. Traditional approaches involving static security gates at pipeline endpoints no longer scale when development velocity accelerates through AI assistance. The question has moved from whether developers will use AI tools to how organizations contain new risk classes emerging from faster iteration, increased code reuse, and subtle vulnerabilities that bypass traditional detection.
The funding positions Symbiotic Security within a growing category of startups building security specifically for AI-assisted development workflows. The convergence of AI, security, and development velocity represents a significant market opportunity as virtually every software organization now incorporates AI coding assistants into their workflows.
