Half of identity funding rounds pitch AI agents, but agent startups raise no bigger checks

Of the 99 identity-security equity rounds announced between January 2025 and October 2026, 49 were for companies or rounds that explicitly targeted AI agents or non-human identities. That pitch did not buy a bigger check. The median agent-focused seed was $9.8 million against $9.5 million for other identity startups, and the median Series A $20.0 million against $21.3 million. Those are the headline results of the Identity Funding Report 2026, which SWI published on October 31 together with the round-by-round dataset behind it.

What the dataset is

The dataset holds 101 funding rounds announced from January 1, 2025 to October 31, 2026 at 89 identity-security companies: 99 equity rounds and two debt facilities. It covers IAM, CIAM, IGA, PAM, ITDR, non-human and AI-agent identity, secrets, identity verification and KYC, authorization, MFA, decentralized identity and PKI.

Every row has these fields:

• the company and its SWI vendor profile, where one exists
• the round, and whether the source actually named the stage
• the amount and the valuation, each with a status: disclosed (the company or an investor said it), reported (a named outlet reported it) or undisclosed
• the announcement date, the lead investors and the headquarters country
• an agent-focus flag
• any later acquisition from SWI's acquisitions record
• a source URL and the date SWI checked it

The headline numbers: $4.40 billion in priced equity capital, $2.18 billion in 2025 and $2.22 billion in 2026 to October 31. Two late-stage deals, Keyfactor's growth investment of more than $1 billion and Saviynt's $700 million round, account for 39% of it.

Why SWI built it

Identity funding news arrives one press release at a time. Totals for the market usually come from paid databases or from cybersecurity-wide counts in which identity is one line. Neither tells a buyer whether a $60 million seed is normal, or tells a founder what a Series A in identity looks like. Most also do not separate an amount the company stated from one a reporter heard.

SWI already tracks who buys identity companies, in the Identity Consolidation Report 2026. This dataset covers the other half of the same market: where the money goes in, and how often it comes out as an acquisition.

How to use it

CISOs and buyers: vendor viability

A recent round means runway. The report adds a caution. Seven of the 89 funded companies had been acquired by October 31, a median of 224 days after their last round. Oasis Security agreed to sell to Cyera 131 days after a $120 million Series B. Apono went to 1Password, and Veza to ServiceNow.

Before you sign a multi-year contract with a recently funded vendor, look it up in the CSV. If its last round was within the past year, negotiate change-of-control and data-export terms as if a sale were likely, because for this group it often was.

Analysts and research organizations: sizing and citations

The CSV and JSON are free under CC BY 4.0. Filter by category, stage, region or amount status and rebuild any figure in the report. The amount_status column lets you report a disclosed-only total ($4.10 billion) separately from one that includes press-reported figures. Treat every total as a floor: the data covers announced rounds only and leans on English-language press.

Founders and investors: stage benchmarks

Use the stage medians: $3.0 million at pre-seed, $9.5 million at seed, $20.0 million at Series A and $40.0 million at Series B, counting only priced rounds whose stage the source named. Then use the outliers to calibrate. Six seeds of $20 million or more hold 55% of all seed capital, which the report calls the mega-seed share, and four of the six went to Israeli companies. European founders should note the regional gap: a median European round of $7.8 million against $30.0 million in the US.

Journalists: check the number before you quote it

When you write about a new identity round, the dataset gives you context in one lookup: the median for that stage, the category's total, and whether the company's last valuation was disclosed or only reported. The share of rounds pitched at AI agents is a sourced figure you can cite instead of an impression. SWI's own reporting on individual rounds, such as Infisical's $40 million Series B, links back to the same record.

How to cite it and send corrections

Cite it as: StartWithIdentity.com, Identity Funding Report 2026, snapshot October 31, 2026, with a link to the report. Each key finding has a stable anchor (#finding-1 to #finding-8), so you can link the exact figure you use.

The data is a dated snapshot, and it is incomplete where announcements were missed: non-English press, quiet raises, and the last weeks before the snapshot. If you know of a missing round or a wrong figure, send it with a source. Corrections are credited and go into the next update.