For two decades, software assumed humans would log in to use applications, but the next wave involves AI agents invoking business apps and APIs on behalf of users or autonomously. Identity and access systems must now verify these agents' identities and permissions. To address this, Scalekit has launched an authentication stack purpose-built for agentic apps and secured a $5.5 million seed round led by Together Fund and Z47, with angel backing from Adam Frankl, Oliver Jay, Jagadeesh Kunda, and others.
Gartner predicts that by 2028, 25% of enterprise breaches will be traced to compromised AI agents. Current identity systems, designed for human logins via browsers with manual logouts, fail when agents spin up, complete tasks, and vanish, leading to over-privileged access or fragile workarounds.
"For years, software focused on blocking bots. Now business apps must let authenticated agents in and decide exactly what data they can read or write," says Satya Devarakonda, co-founder and CEO. "Scalekit sits at that intersection of verifying every agent's identity and enforcing precise, least-privilege access through a single drop-in toolkit."
"AI agents are emerging as first-class users of business software, and current identity stacks can't keep up," said Girish Mathrubootham, Founding Partner, Together Fund. "Scalekit spotted the shift early and built the missing agent identity infrastructure. We believe that foundation will power the next billion agent identities."
Scalekit secures both incoming authentication for Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers and outgoing agent actions to third-party tools. Developers can add a turnkey OAuth 2.1 authorization server in minutes for MCP servers. For agents, it offers an encrypted token vault and tool-calling layer, enabling secure interactions with Gmail, Slack, HubSpot, and Notion without custom token management.
Ravi Madabhushi, co-founder and CTO, adds, "After scaling auth for 50,000 businesses at Freshworks, we saw the next challenge coming: agent identities that live in code, not in user directories. Scalekit delivers short-lived scoped tokens and plug-in tooling that make agentic workflows secure."
Beyond agents, Scalekit provides friction-free options for human users, including email magic links, two-factor OTPs, single sign-on, and machine-to-machine tokens that integrate in minutes. It supports user-to-agent delegated consent and step-up approvals, allowing rapid deployment of agentic workflows.
"Scalekit lets developers adopt only what they need with no forklift migration required. That modular model, paired with lightweight implementation, is why teams building agentic workflows are standardizing on Scalekit," says Pranay Desai, Managing Director, Z47.
Teams such as Fello, Sifthub, Napkin, Unstract, Hubbl, and Aerchain rely on Scalekit for authentication in their AI-native and SaaS applications.
Harsh Vakharia, head of technology at SiftHub, an AI-native sales solution, shares, "We needed auth that just works so we could focus on our core AI features. Scalekit eliminated months of auth complexity and let us ship in a couple of weeks."
Suman Varanasi, CTO at Fello, adds, "We plugged in Scalekit's passwordless auth module without any refactoring. That lego-style flexibility got us live in two weeks."
Scalekit plans to expand its agent-centric features with background agent support, enhanced tool-calling, granular auth logs, and prebuilt connectors for over 1,000 external apps, further solidifying its role in secure AI development.
Scalekit's launch and funding mark a critical advancement in agent authentication, enabling developers to build secure, scalable AI applications that mitigate emerging risks in the agentic era.
Scalekit provides AI developers with authentication and tool-calling infrastructure. Founded by the team behind Freshworks’ original auth platform, the company is backed by Together Fund, Z47, and a network of operator investors. Now live and GA at scalekit.com.
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