Openlayer

Openlayer is a Series A AI governance and observability platform purpose-built for large enterprises navigating the complexities of deploying AI at scale. The company's mission is to give organizations the technical controls they need to evaluate, monitor, and deploy AI systems safely — serving as a control plane for AI that bridges governance teams and technical enforcement. Founded in 2021 and headquartered in San Francisco, Openlayer is backed by Y Combinator, Liquid 2 Ventures, and notable angels including the founders of Instacart, Instagram, and Vercel — having raised $19.3M to date, including a $14.5M Series A in May 2025. The platform delivers 100+ automated tests, real-time guardrails against prompt injections, PII leakage, bias, toxicity, and hallucinations, and full traceability across RAG pipelines, agents, and complex multi-step AI workflows — supporting compliance with frameworks including NIST, ISO 42001, and the EU AI Act. Customers are primarily Fortune 500 and Fortune 2000 organizations with over $1B in annual revenue operating in highly regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, and telecom. At just ~25 people, Openlayer operates with a strong ownership mentality and a hands-on founding team — the CTO personally manages enterprise on-prem deployments — reflecting a culture that prizes deep technical craft, customer obsession, speed, and building things that work in the real world.